r 


REESE    LIBRARY 

OF    THK 

UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA, 

Received 

A  ccessions  No. .  ^sS~<3  P  o 


• 


RATIONAL  COSMOLOGY: 


OE 


THE  ETERNAL  PRINCIPLES  AND  THE  NECESSARY 
LAWS  OF  THE  UNIVERSE. 


BY 


LAUKENS  P.'HICKOK,  D.D. 


UNION  COLLEGE. 


UNIVERSITY 


NEW  YOKE: 
D.    APPLETON    &   COMPANY, 

846  &  348  BROADWAY. 
LONDON:    16    LITTLE    BRITAIN. 

1858. 


// 


ENTERED  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  tho  year  1858,  by 
LAURENS  P.  HICKOK,  D.  D. 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Northern  District 
of  New  York. 


PREFACE. 


THEEE  must  somewhere  be  a  position  from  whence 
it  may  clearly  be  seen,  that  the  universe  has  laws  which 
are  necessarily  determined  by  immutable  and  eternal 
principles.  Nothing  in  nature,  and  equally  so  not  na 
ture  itself,  can  be  made  intelligible  except  as  it  has  been 
subjected  to  rational  principle,  and  such  principle  must 
both  have  been,  and  been  made  controlling,  in  the  very 
origination  of  nature,  or  nature  must  forever  be  with 
out  meaning  or  end.  That  principle,  then,  to  an  all- 
perfect  insight,  must  disclose  within  itself  what  the 
facts  must  be,  and  no  induction  of  facts  can  at  all  be 
needed  by  the  absolute  reason. 

But  the  finite  reason,  with  its  partial  insight,  must 
have  too  limited  a  comprehension  of  the  eternal  princi 
ple,  to  be  able  adequately  to  follow  out  all  its  deter 
mined  results  from  itself,  without  a  reference  to  the 
facts  that  have  been  determined  by  it  to  guide  his  intu 
itive  processes.  What  already  is  must  often  help  him 
to  see  what  eternally  must  have  been,  and  without  the 
suggestive  fact  he  would  have  failed  to  find  the  deter- 


4:  PEEFACE. 

urinations  of  the  principle.  Still  the  mere  facts  in 
nature  can  never  suffice  to  bring  him  to  the  eternal 
principle.  No  single  fact,  and  no  possible  induction  of 
facts,  can  give  the  principle;  for  all  single  facts  are 
meaningless,  and  all  induction  of  facts  wholly  aimless, 
except  as  some  apprehension  of  the  principle  is  already 
attained.  Facts  therefore  are  useless,  and  leave  the 
insight  helpless  without  some  apprehension  of  the  eter 
nal  principle  ;  but  the  apprehension  of  the  principle  is 
too  inadequate  to  the  finite  reason,  to  permit  the  insight 
to  follow  out  all  its  determinations  without  some  refer 
ence  to  the  facts  actually  determined.  It  will  thus  ever 
be  true  for  the  finite  human  reason,  that  with  the  mere 
facts  of  nature  he  can  never  rise  to  any  science  of  na 
ture,  and  with  the  partial  apprehension  of  the  principle 
he  can  never  follow  it  out  in  all  its  necessary  determi 
nations,  and  hence  his  only  sure  progress  must  be,  first 
an  apprehension  of  the  principle,  more  or  less  inade 
quately,  and  then  a  following  out  of  the  principle  in  its 
necessary  laws  by  a  reference  to  the  actual  facts  that 
have  already  been  determined  by  it.  Pure  principles 
will  thus  always  be  more  clearly  and  completely  read 
by  the  human  mind  where  there  is  the  most  clear  and 
complete  possession  of  the  actual  facts,  and  the  study 
of  the  principle  in  them  and  by  them.  The  facts  are 
nothing  for  philosophy  except  as  seen  to  be  determined 
in  their  principle,  but  they  are  much  for  philosophy 
when  used  by  the  insight  for  the  development  of  the 
determinations  of  principle. 


PREFACE. 


Inasmuch,  then,  as  Nature  is  a  rational  creation,  the 
Creator  must  have  put  his  own  idea  into  it,  and  the 
principles  that  determined  in  the  making,  must  come 
out  in  its  ongoing.  The  development  of  the  determi 
nations  of  the  pure  principle  must  harmonize  with,  be 
cause  they  have  necessitated,  the  laws  in  the  actual 
facts,  and  the  study  of  the  facts  in  the  necessary  laws, 
and  of  those  laws  in  the  determinations  of  their  eternal 
principles,  is  the  only  possible  method  for  attaining  to 
the  Creator's  idea,  and  thereby  rising  to  any  science  of 
the  universe,  and  attaining  what  may  be  termed  a  ra 
tional  cosmology.  It  is  no  presumption  so  to  seek  for 
this  divine  idea ;  it  need  have  nothing  of  irreverence 
to  disclose  so  much  as  may  be  attained ;  yet  will  it  be 
premature  doubtless  for  a  long  time  to  come,  to  announce 
that  such  idea  has  been  completely  apprehended,  and 
may  be  adequately  stated  in  any  human  philosophy. 
So  much  as  has  been  gotten  and  given  in  the  following 
pages,  the  careful  reader  will  at  length  discover,  and 
some  may  perhaps  hereby  be  led  to  seek  further  and  to 
see  clearer.  The  process  is  directly  on  to  the  vindica 
tion  of  a  pure  Theism,  and  the  exclusion  of  both  Athe 
ism  and  Pantheism. 

The  introduction  to  the  work  may  seem  to  some  to 
be  too  far  extended  ;  but  as  a  preparative  for  the  inves 
tigations  which  follow,  and  as  an  aid  and  a  guide  to  the 
reader  in  the  perhaps  unaccustomed  path  he  is  called  to 
travel,  it  is  deemed  that  the  whole  will  be  useful,  inde 
pendently  of  the  intrinsic  importance  it  may  have  in 


6  PREFACE. 

itself.  The  first  chapter  may  also  by  some  be  thought 
to  have  too  little  connection  with  cosmology  to  be  here 
properly  introduced ;  and  yet  a  further  attention  will 
probably  find  and  appreciate  the  advantage,  before  the 
study  of  the  principles  and  laws  of  the  cosmos,  to  have 
a  carefully  attained  idea  of  a  Creator  as  wholly  inde 
pendent  of  the  cosmos  he  is  to  make  and  govern,  beside 
the  fact  that  neither  Atheism  nor  Pantheism  can  ever 
be  finally  excluded  except  in  the  complete  idea  of  an 
absolute  Creator  as  distinct  from  Universal  Nature. 
Still,  should  any  find  themselves  both  uninterested  and 
unprofited  by  the  discussion,  they  can  at  once  pass  over 
both  the  introduction  and  the  first  chapter,  and  com 
mence  what  is  properly  the  topic  of  rational  Cosmology 
with  the  beginning  of  the  second  chapter. 

In  portions  of  the  intuitive  processes  here  pursued, 
a  help  might  at  the  outset  have  been  given  to  some 
minds  by  the  interposition  of  more  diagrams,  and  yet 
in  the  end  the  fastest  and  the  pleasantest  progress  will 
be  found  to  have  been  secured  by  casting  off  all  depend 
ence  on  any  such  helps,  and  fixing  the  mind's  eye  di 
rectly  upon  the  subjective  ideal,  as  the  pure  ground  in 
which  the  insight  is  to  attain  determinations  of  the 
developed  principle.  In  two  cases  only  from  the  extent 
and  complication  of  the  intuition,  has  it  seemed  best 
to  resort  to  the  interposition  of  figures  ;  in  other  cases 
care  has  been  taken  to  use  precise  language,  and  to  give 
descriptive  illustrations  and  analogies,  so  that  to  a  care 
ful  and  clear  inspection  the  process  may  be  followed 


PREFACE. 


without  much  difficulty  or  discouragement.  Nothing 
can  make  the  journey  easy  to  a  mind  that  refuses  to  go 
alone  and  waits  to  be  carried.  The  truths  sought  are 
not  in  the  sensible  phenomenon,  nor  at  the  conclusion 
of  a  logical  process,  but  must  be  clear  to  the  rational 
insight  in  their  own  necessity,  if  apprehended  at  all. 
To  the  intellect  that  does  not  so  apprehend  them,  all 
forms  of  expression  will  be  empty ;  to  the  mind  that 
does  so  apprehend  them,  no  interposed  figures  are  need 
ed  or  would  be  tolerated. 

UNION  COLLEGE,  1858. 


CONTENTS. 

INTRODUCTION, 18 

Facts  and  principles.  Facts  determined  by  Principles. 
General  progress  of  philosophical  investigation.  Theology 
and  philosophy  possible. 

RATIONAL    COSMOLOGY. 

GENERAL  METHOD, 55 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE  IDEA  OF  AN  ABSOLUTE  CEEATOE. 

1.  THE  ABSOLUTE  TAKEN  AS  THE  INFINITE, 59 

2.  THE  ABSOLUTE  TAKEN  AS  THE  UNCONDITIONED, 63 

3.  THE  ABSOLUTE  IN  THE  UNDERSTANDING  ITSELF, 68 

4.  THE  ABSOLUTE  AS  GIVEN  IN  THE  REASON, 76 

In  this  is  found  the  Deity ;  Supernatural,  Personal,  and 
Absolute,  in  all  His  Attributes. 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE  ETERNAL  PRINCIPLES   OF  THE  UNIVERSE. 

1.  MATTER  is  FORCE — ANTAGONIST  AND  DIREMPTIVE, 90 

2.  CREATION — THE  ORIGINATION  OF  MATTER, 96 

3.  SPACE  AND  TIME  DETERMINED,      .     .     - 103 

4.  MATTER  PERCEPTIBLE  BY  THE  SENSES, 110 

The  Touch.     Taste.     Smell.     Hearing.     Vision. 

5.  MATTER  AS  STATICAL  AND  DYNAMICAL, 117 

6.  PRINCIPLES  OF  MOTION, 120 

Momentum.     Virtual  Velocity. 

7.  CREATION  A  NATURE, 131 


1 0  CONTENTS. 

8.  THE  MATERIAL  CREATION  A  SPHERE, 134 

9.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  GRAVITY, 145 

Repulsion  and  Attraction. 

10.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  FALLING  BODIES, 155 

Increase  of  Momentum.     Inclined  Plane. 

11.  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  MAGNETISM, 162 

Bi-polar.     Dip.     Attraction  and  Repulsion. 

12.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  ELECTRICITY, 171 

Electric  tension.     Positive  and  Negative  Conductors. 

13.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  HEAT — DIREMPTIVE  FORCE, 175 

Vibration.     Radiation.     Absorption.     Latent-heat. 

14.  CHEMICAL  PRINCIPLES, 181 

Combination.     Equivalents.     Affinities. 

15.  CRYSTALLINE  PRINCIPLES, 184 

Polar  forces  with  varied  axes.     Geometrical  solids. 

16.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  WORLD-FORMATIONS, 186 

Chemical  Chaos.  Rotating  Spheres.  Single  and 
Double-Worlds.  Systems.  Central  Suns. 

17.  PRINCIPLES  OF  PLANETARY  MOTION, 202 

Elliptical.  Equal  areas  in  equal  times.  Square  of  the 
periodical  time  as  cube  of  the  distance. 

18.  PRINCIPLE  OF  LIGHT,  AND  LUMINIFEROUS  BODIES,    .  210 

Ethereal  pressure  on  the  Sun's  surface,  and  rotating 
friction.  Luminous  Atmosphere.  Various  optical  phenom 
ena. 

19.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  GEOLOGICAL  FORMATIONS, 218 

Gravity  and  Cooling.  Plutonian  Crust  and  Strata. 
Wernerian  Deposits. 

20.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  COMETARY  BODIES, 220 

From  without  the  system.  Some  caught  and  retain 
ed.  Direct  and  Retrograde. 

21.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  STELLAR  DISTRIBUTION, 228 

Hemispheral  pressure  and  diremptive  force  com 
pounded.  Stellar  stratification.  Clusters. 

LIFE. 

DEMAND  FOR  ORGANIC  BEING, 231 

22.  THE  LIFE  AN  ASSIMILATIVE  FORCE, 234 

Formative-energy.  Growth.  Propagation.  Sex.  Spe 
cies.  Death. 

23.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  VEGETATIVE  LIFE,    .....  .240 

Superficial.     Ramification.     Reduplication. 


CONTESTS.  -  11 

24.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  ANIMAL  LIFE 244 

Vegetation  turned  inward.  Muscular  Irritability. 
Nervous  Sensibility.  Self-feeling. 

25.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  HUMAN  LIFE, 252 

The  Rational  superinduced  on  the  Animal.  Self-centre. 
Self-consciousness.  Supernatural.  The  Consummation  and 
Crown  of  Nature. 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  XECESSABY  LAWS  OF  THE  UXIYEESE. 

THE  CREATOR  NOT  THE  SUBJECT  OF  SCIENCE, 256 

1.  THE  LAW  OF  SPHERICITY, 258 

Tendency  in  Solids.  The  fact  in  Fluids.  Capillary 
Attraction. 

2.  THE  LAW  OF  GRAVITY, 264 

Universal,  and  no  assumption. 

3.  LAWS  OF  MOTION, 269 

4.  LAWS  OF  MAGNETISM, 270 

Magnetics  and  dia-magnetics.  Astatic  Coercive-force. 
Induction.  Terrestrial  Magnetism. 

5.  THE  LAWS  OF  ELECTRICITY, 280 

Static  and  dynamic  conditions.  Conductors.  Insu 
lators.  Positive  and  Negative  Poles.  Molecular  Vibration. 
Circularity.  Electro-magnetic. 

6.  THE  LAWS  OF  HEAT, 289 

Vibrating  Intensity.  Diathermanous  and  Athermanous 
Bodies.  Combustion.  Latent  Heat.  Effusion.  Vaporiza 
tion.  Animal  Heat. 

7.  THE  LAWS  OF  LIGHT  AND  LUMINIFEROUS  BODIES, 295 

Radiating  Vibrations.  Penumbra.  Reflection.  Re 
fraction.  Prismatic  Spectrum.  Chromatic  Aberration. 
Interference.  Polarization.  Sun's  spots. 

8.  THE  LAW  OF  CHEMICAL  FORCES,       307 

Chemical  Affinity.  Definite  and  Indefinite  Action. 
Simple  Substances.  Chemical  Equivalents. 

9.  THE  LAWS  OF  CRYSTALLINE  FORCES, 314 

Classification.     Axial  Construction.     Cleavage.      Con 
tractions  and  Expansions. 
10.  THE  LAWS  OF  THE  WORLD-SYSTEMS  IN  THEIR  ARRANGEMENT  AND 

MOVEMENT, 322 

Densities.    Interplanetary  spaces.    Periodic  times.    Sat- 


12  CONTENTS. 

ellitcs.     Planetary  inclinations.     Rotations.     Uranian  sys 
tem  apparently  retrograde.     Planetoids.     Saturn's  Rings. 

11.  THE  LAW  OF  COMETS, 345 

Cometary  Origin.  Incorporation  into  the  System. 
Elliptical  Orbits,  and  Hyperbolic  and  Parabolic  Courses. 
Inclinations.  Change  of  retrogradation. 

12.  THE  LAWS  OF  GEOLOGICAL  FORMATION,       ........     359 

Broken  and  upturned  strata.  Azoic  rocks.  Fossil 
strata.  Subcrystalline,  Basalt,  and  Trap  rocks.  Diluvial 
deposits.  Moon's  surface,  and  other  planets. 

13.  THE  LAWS  OF  STELLAR  DISTRIBUTION, 362 

The  Milky-way.     Stellar  Clusters.     Nebulae. 

14.  THE  LAWS  OF  LIFE, .378 

The  Life-force  Spiritual.  Works  to  supply  wants,  and 
thus  to  ends.  Organisms.  Sex.  Species.  No  hybrid  pro 
pagation. 

15.  THE  LAW  OF  PHYSICAL  ENERGIES, 380 

Reduced  to  Gravity  and  Heat,  and  thus  to  the  two  per 
manent  and  original  Forces — Antagonist  and  Diremptive. 
A  conversion  but  no  annihilation  of  Forces. 


APPENDIX. 

COSMOLOGY  ACCORDS  WITH  MOSES, 386 


UNIVERSITY 


INTRODUCTION. 


FACTS  are  things  made — res  gestce,  facta.  They  have 
the  nature  that  is  given  to  them  by  their  Maker ;  and  in 
knowing  only  the  fact,  there  is  no  capability  for  knowing 
why  their  nature  is  thus  and  not  otherwise.  The  Maker 
has  so  constituted  the  fact,  but  in  our  ignorance  of  what 
determined  Him  in  the  making,  we  can  only  find  in  experi 
ence  that  the  fact  is,  and  can  by  no  means  say  wliy  it  is. 

PRINCIPLES  are  truths  prior  to  all  facts,  or  makings, 
and  are  themselves  unmade.  They  stand  in  immutable 
and  eternal  necessity ;  and  while  they  condition  all  power, 
can  themselves  be  conditioned  by  no  power.  Even  Omni 
potence  can  be  wise  and  righteous,  only  as  determined  by 
immutable  principles.  The  insight  of  the  reason  may  often 
detect,  in  the  fact,  the  principle  which  determined  the 
nature  of  the  fact,  and  in  the  light  of  such  principle  we 
can  say  why  the  fact  is,  and  not  merely  that  it  is. 

The  perception  of  the  sense  gives  facts ;  the  insight  of 
the  reason  gives  principles.  The  use  of  facts  may  lead  the 
mind  up  from  particular  to  general  judgments,  whereby 
we  may  classify  all  the  attainments  of  sense  and  secure  an 
intelligible  order  of  experience ;  the  use  of  principles  may 


14:  INTRODUCTION. 

guide  the  mind  to  interpret  and  explain  facts,  and  raise  its 
knowledge  from  that  of  a  logical  experience  to  philosophi 
cal  science.  Not  facts  alone,  no  matter  how  logically 
classified,  but  facts  expounded  by  principles,  constitute 
philosophy. 

To  know  that  a  fact  is,  and  to  be  competent  to  deduce 
a  logical  conclusion  that  because  such  fact  is,  other  de 
pendent  facts  must  have  been,  or  must  now  or  in  future 
be,  is  doubtless  in  various  ways  of  great  importance.  The 
business  and  social  intercourse  of  life  could  not  be  carried 
on  without  it.  All  such  deductions  belong  to  the  distinct 
capacity  of  the  logical  understanding,  and  its  successful 
cultivation  secures  good  judgment,  practical  wisdom,  and 
successful  management  in  all  economical  matters.  In  those 
affairs  which  come  within  the  considerations  of  the  expedi 
ent,  the  prudent,  the  useful,  such  clear  judgments  from 
comprehensive  facts  must  control,  and  the  calculating, 
mercantile,  business  world  could  not  get  on  without  just 
such  intellectual  operations.  The  value  to  such  operations 
is  given  from  a  wide  experience,  embracing  many  facts, 
and  carefully  deducing  from  them  what  other  facts  may  be 
expected  according  to  the  past  order  of  occurrences ;  and 
while  one  man  may  differ,  in  degree,  very  widely  from 
others,  yet  will  ah1  men  have  this  capacity  in  a  measure, 
and  their  agency  in  practical  thinking  and  connecting  facts 
in  general  judgments  will  be  the  same  in  kind.  Yea,  a 
man  may  use  more  facts  and  conclude  in  broader  judg 
ments  than  an  animal,  but  the  man  and  the  brute  are  in 
this  doing  the  same  work,  and  often  the  sagacity  of  the 
brute  is  surprisingly  near  to  that  of  the  human  under 
standing. 


FACT    DETERMINED   BY    PRINCIPLE.  15 

Such  well-cultivated  capacity  may  be  known  as  good 
sense,  since  it  avails  for  the  induction  of  many  facts  in 
sensible  experience ;  or  it  may  be  termed  good  judgment, 
since  it  is  competent  to  use  such  facts  in  comprehensive 
practical  conclusions.  But  this  is  the  most  that  can  truly 
be  said  of  it  in  its  highest  degrees  of  perfection.  To  call 
its  results,  in  the  broadest  generalizations,  good  philosophy, 
would  be  wholly  to  mistake  the  name  and  the  thing ;  since 
this  practical  experience  can  use  facts  only,  and  its  most 
general  judgments  can  attain  facts  only,  while  the  distinc 
tive  work  of  philosophy  is  to  go  back  of  the  facts,  and  attain 
and  apply  the  principles  wThich  determine  why  the  facts 
are  so. 

Man  has  the  capacity  for  this,  which  the  animal  has 
not ;  an  endowment  differing  utterly  in  kind  and  not  mere 
ly  in  degree.  Man  can,  therefore,  philosophize  and  inter 
pret  facts,  while  the  animal  can  only  judge  according  to 
facts.  By  the  insight  of  reason,  which  no  animal  can  exer 
cise,  man  attains  in  many  facts  the  principle  which  was 
before  the  fact,  and  which,  wholly  unmade  itself,  controlled 
and  guided  the  maker  of  the  fact  in  all  its  construction. 
The  objects  of  the  most  general  judgments  of  the  under 
standing  are  still  only  facts,  things  made ;  and  if  they  have 
been  intelligently  made  and  are  capable  of  any  rational 
explication  by  their  maker,  or  by  others,  they  must  have 
had  their  unmade  principle  for  each,  present  in  the  mind 
of  the  maker,  and  that  guided  in  his  making,  and  which  he 
has  so  put  into  the  fact  that  it  has  become  the  nature  of 
the  fact,  and  the  law  of  its  being  and  working,  and  whose 
light  alone  can  guide  to  any  proper  philosophical  account 
of  the  fact  it  has  determined.  Thus,  the  steam  engine  was 


16  INTRODUCTION. 

not  as  a  fact,  until  its  principle  was  already  in  the  mind  of 
its  inventor,  and  this  principle  he  did  not  make  but  found, 
and  which  having  found,  he  went  on  to  put  into  the  fact  he 
fabricated  as  the  law  of  its  peculiar  being.  The  rational 
eye  may  readily  read  the  law  in  the  fact,  when  often  the 
principle  without  the  fact  would  not  have  been  discovered, 
but  when  in  any  way  the  principle  is  attained,  whether  as 
the  product  of  original  genius  or  learned  from  his  works, 
it  is  that  by  which  we  may  give  the  explication  why  the 
fact  was  thus  and  not  of  some  other  nature.  The  fact  not 
only  must  be  known,  the  principle  which  was  before  its 
making  must  also  be  known,  or  we  can  have  no  rational 
philosophy  about  it. 

Now,  just  such  application  of  eternal  and  immutable 
principle  is  demanded  for  the  philosophical  study  of  uni 
versal  nature.  Observation  may  give  its  many  particular 
facts,  and  general  conclusions  from  broad  inductions  may 
assume  to  have  found  facts  of  universal  comprehension,  yet 
are  these  highest  facts  necessarily,  thus,  unexplained  facts, 
and  as  without  any  known  principle  themselves,  they  must 
be  ever  wholly  incompetent  to  lead  to  any  philosophical 
interpretation  of  the  included  facts  which  may  be  classified 
under  them.  One  fact  may  thus  be  gained,  as  that  which 
shall  make  all  facts  turn  together  in  it,  and  thereby  we  may 
have  literally  a  universe,  still  we  can  thus  have  it  and  its 
included  universe  only  as  a  fact,  with  no  possible  rational 
philosophy  of  any  thing.  If  we  know  the  fact  that  nature 
is  a  universe,  we  have  no  principle  by  which  we  can  at  all 
interpret  why  it  is  so. 

Thus,  by  wide  experiment  and  profound  calculation  the 
great  fact  of  universal  gravitation  in  matter  has  been  as- 


FACTS   DETERMINED   BY   PRINCIPLE.  17 

sumed,  and  the  conclusion  has  been  reached  that  all  matter 
gravitates  toward  all  other  matter,  directly  as  the  quantity 
and  inversely  as  the  square  of  the  distance,  and  we  bind 
nature  in  a  universe  by  it ;  but  at  the  most,  this  is  only 
given  as  a  fact,  with  no  principle  that  has  so  determined  it, 
and  it  can  therefore  only  give  the  universe  as  a  fact  and 
afford  no  possible  rational  explication  of  it.  If  we  have  not 
the  unmade  principle  determining  the  fact  of  gravity  so  to 
be,  and  with  just  such  ratios,  then  have  we  no  rational 
science  of  nature,  and  what  we  call  a  law  of  nature  is  still 
a  bare  fact ;  an  arbitrary  making ;  and  no  philosophy  in 
terpreting  the  making  by  its  principle.  The  vast  super 
structure  we  have  reared  is  all  the  work  of  the  logical 
understanding,  without  one  ray  of  the  expounding  reason 
to  shine  on  it  and  through  it.  The  whole  frame-work  has 
been  put  together,  with  much  of  human  toil  and  din,  from 
the  outside,  but  no  eye  has  found  and  fixed  its  absorbing 
gaze  upon  that  inner  force  which,  in  the  reality,  has  been 
silently  making  living  stones  grow  together  to  be  the 
Lord's  holy  Temple.  Till  we  attain  this  eternal  principle, 
which  as  a  living  law  the  Maker  of  the  universe  has  diffused 
all  through  it  from  centre  to  circumference,  we  may  stand 
on  the  outside  and  measure  and  weigh,  and  overwhelm  the 
understanding  with  the  summations  of  arithmetical  reckon 
ings,  but  we  shall  know  nothing  of  that  central  working 
which  makes  and  holds  all  in  one  concrete  cosmos  of  per 
petual  harmony  and  beauty. 

Universal  nature  is  more  than  bare  fact ;  it  is  something 
made  under  the  determining  conditions  of  unmade  princi 
ple  :  and  this  immutable  principle,  under  which  its  being 
and  all  its  ongoings  have  been  determined,  has  now  its 


18  INTRODUCTION. 

counterpart  in  nature  as  the  perpetual  law  of  its  working, 
and  the  human  reason  may  find  at  least  some  glimpses  of  it 
and  interpret  the  great  plan  by  it,  and  may  so  far  know 
what  nature  is,  and  why  it  is  thus,  and  not  forever  rest  in 
the  mere  knowledge  that  it  is.  If,  indeed,  we  cannot  ex 
tend  our  knowledge  beyond  the  bare  facts  of  experience, 
then  must  we  perforce  content  ourselves  with  the  mere 
phenomena  of  nature,  but  we  may  not  assume  that  any 
such  knowledge  is  a  science  of  nature,  for  this  cannot  be 
attained  except  as  we  reach  and  apply  the  determining 
principle.  A  rational  cosmology  is  the  only  true  natural 
philosophy. 

This  immutable  principle,  which  determines  how  the 
fact  may  be,  and,  if  the  fact  be  at  all,  how  it  must  be,  is 
given  in  pure  thought  alone,  and  can  be  no  appearance  in 
the  sense.  Neither  can  it  be  that  which  connects  the  quali 
ties  given  in  the  sense  into  one  thing,  for  that  is  effected  in 
the  substance;  nor  that  which  connects  the  successive 
events  into  one  series,  for  that  must  be  done  through  the 
cause ;  but  the  principle  lies  still  further  back,  and  deter 
mines  the  natures  of  substances  and  causes  themselves,  and 
stands  as  the  archetype  or  ideal  pattern  after  which  the 
essential  natures  of  things  have  been  created.  It  is  the 
consistent  thought,  as  idea,  how  the  fact  may  be,  and  when 
carried  in  combination  through  all  facts,  it  becomes  the 
consistent  idea  of  how  a  universe  may  be.  All  the  statics 
and  dynamics  of  nature  were  arranged  by  it,  and  thus  it 
was  before  the  forces  of  nature  and  their  balanced  action 
became  facts,  and  therefore  existed  as  a  subjective  ideal  in 
the  mind  of  the  Maker  of  the  universe  only.  The  principle 
as  in  being  before  the  fact,  and  which  is  to  determine  the 


FACTS    DETERMINED   BY   PRINCIPLE.  19 

fact,  has  not  yet  been  brought  out  into  objective  existence, 
but  subsists  as  mental  being  alone.  The  principle,  thus,  is 
not  science,  but  only  the  ideal  of  a  possible  being,  which, 
when  it  shall  become  fact,  may  be  subjected  to  science. 

As  a  general  illustration  of  the  being  and  application 
of  all  immutable  principles,  I  may  adduce  the  subjective 
thought  of  an  arch,  or  of  a  catenary  curve,  and  may  so  ap 
ply  these  in  a  completed  projection  as  to  have  the  ideal  of 
a  standing  or  of  a  hanging  bridge ;  or,  I  may  take  the  sub 
jective  thought  of  a  mechanical  power,  and  follow  out  the 
composition  and  resolution  of  forces  till  I  have  projected 
some  ideal  engine ;  and  I  shall  then  have  the  bridge  or  the 
engine  in  pure  thought,  and  which  will  be  subjective  pat 
tern  of  what  the  bridge  or  the  engine  must  be,  if  they  be 
come  manifest  in  objective  fact.  At  the  most,  here  will  be 
the  science  of  the  possible  only.  It  may  even  be  that 
nature  will  not  admit  of  these  ideals  becoming  facts.  Per 
haps  my  projected  structure  is  such,  that  no  actual  mate 
rials  would  bear  their  weight  in  the  bridge,  or  the  pressure 
of  such  a  force  in  the  machine,  and  then  my  perfectly  con 
sistent  thought  could  never  be  made  an  actual  thing.  The 
theory  is  self-consistent,  but  the  fact  would  be  self-contra 
dictory.  The  science  cannot  be  complete  until  both  the 
principle,  as  self-consistent  thought,  has  been  obtained,  and 
this  principle  has  also  found  its  actual  counterpart,  as  the 
existing  law  of  the  combined  materials. 

So,  on  the  other  hand,  I  may  have  seen  a  bridge  resting 
on  such  a  material  arch,  or  suspended  on  such  chains ;  or, 
I  may  have  seen  a  machine  moving  with  such  a  mechanical 
power;  and  then  I  can,  by  experimental  measure  and 
weight,  make  other  constructions  like  to  these,  and  thus 


20  INTRODUCTION. 

actually  put  the  law  of  the  models  into  the  facts  I  have 
made  to  imitate  them.  But  inasmuch  as  my  work  has  been 
only  an  imitation,  and  I  have  recognized  and  applied  no  law 
in  the  facts  which  had  been  determined  by  an  immutable 
principle,  I  cannot  be  said  in  having  the  fact,  to  have  any 
proper  science  of  it. 

Thus  the  subjective  idea  alone  is  not  complete  science ; 
and  the  fact  as  mere  fact  is  not  science ;  the  first  is  only 
the  knowledge  of  the  possible,  the  last  is  only  the  knowl 
edge  of  the  empirical;  but  when  the  subjective  idea  as  the 
principle  determining  the  fact,  and  the  objective  law  as  put 
by  the  principle  into  the  fact,  are  both  attained  as  accord 
ant  counterparts  of  each  other,  we  have  then  both  an  inter 
preting  principle  and  an  interpreted  fact,  and  in  this  is 
complete  science.  The  whole  process  in  its  attainment  is  a 
rational  philosophy.  A  Rational  Cosmology  must  conform 
to  this  criterion  of  all  science,  and  only  in  so  far  forth  as  it 
is  kept  within  the  constant  circumscription  of  such  criterion 
can  it  have  any  claim  to  a  rational  philosophy.  All  that  is 
fact — the  entire  cosmos,  as  a  making  after  a  principle — 
may  be  so  subjected  to  philosophy  by  an  adequate  insight 
of  reason. 

But  the  cosmos,  or  world  of  fact,  must  have  its  Maker. 
A  universe,  coming  up  successively  or  collectively  out  of  a 
void  of  all  being,  would  be  an  impossible  conception.  It 
would  oblige  the  understanding  to  think  a  substance  that 
was  not  substantial,  and  therein  to  think  an  absurdity. 
This  Creator  of  the  cosmos  must  be  wholly  absolved  from 
all  the  conditions  determining  the  cosmos  ;  he  must  origi 
nate  it,  and  give  to  it  its  nature  while  he  is  wholly  super 
natural  ;  and  thus,  as  the  author  of  all  fact  and  not  himself 


FACTS   DETERMINED   BY   PRINCIPLE.  21 

a  fact,  or  a  making,  he  cannot  be  subjected  to  any  science 
by  the  finite  reason.  It  may  be  demonstrated  that  God 
exists,  and  that  he  is  absolute,  in  the  sense  of  complete  ab 
solution  from  all  the  conditioned  necessities  in  nature  ;  but 
there  can  be  neither  a  principle  as  archetype  after  which  he 
was  made,  nor  a  law  which  works  in  him  as  a  constituted 
fact,  and  subjecting  him  to  its  nature,  and  thus  the  criterion 
of  all  science  is  inapplicable  to  the  Deity  as  subject  to  phi 
losophy.  When  we  have  demonstrated  that  God  is,  and 
that  he  is  absolutely  supernatural,  we  have  all  that  Theology 
demands,  and  do  not  need  to  bring  him  within  the  defini 
tions  of  philosophy.  From  the  nature  of  the  case  philoso 
phy  must  recognize  theology;  neither  can  exclude  the 
other,  nor  can  the  one  be  identified  in  the  other.  There  is 
a  dualism ;  the  world  is  not  without  its  Maker,  and  the 
Maker  is  not  in  and  of  the  world ;  the  theology  rests  on 
the  proof  that  God  is,  the  philosophy  rests  in  the  interpret 
ing  how  the  world  is  ;  and  all  philosophy  without  theology 
is  incomprehensible,  and  all  theology  without  philosophy  is 
a  credulous  superstition.  All  blending  and  confounding  of 
the  two  will  be  destructive  of  both.  If  the  universe  be 
absorbed  in  the  Deity,  it  is  Pantheism ;  if  the  Deity  be  lost 
in  the  universe,  it  is  Pancosmism.  But  the  unphilosophical 
Pantheism  will  be  Atheism,  and  the  atheistic  Pancosmism 
will  annihilate  all  philosophy  in  absurdity. 

The  whole  design  includes  the  attainment  of  a  clear 
conception  of  what  is  essential  in  a  Being  that  must  be  the 
Maker  of  the  universe ;  and  then,  a  clear  conception  also 
of  the  immutable  principles  that  must  determine  the  laws, 
and  by  which  we  may  expound  the  nature  of  the  universe. 
The  Maker  must  be  an  absolute  personal  God,  capable  of 


22  INTRODUCTION. 

originating  material  worlds  from  himself,  without  himself 
being  subjected  to  any  of  the  conditions  of  matter.  But 
we  may  rest  in  the  demonstration  that  such  a  supernatural 
Being  is,  without  attempting  the  solecism  of  attaining  a 
principle  that  is  philosophically  to  interpret  the  absolute 
principium,  and  determine  why  he  is.  In  reference  to  the 
theology,  there  may  be  complete  satisfaction  attained  in 
the  use  of  a  true  rational  Psychology ;  but  the  new  and 
severe  task  demanded  is  in  reference  to  the  philosophy. 
There  is  the  necessity  for  the  instauration  of  a  true  science 
of  the  universe — A  EATIONAL  COSMOLOGY. 

It  will  assist  much  in  setting  clearly  before  the  mind  the 
urgent  necessity  for  such  a  work,  if  we  rapidly  look  over 
the  track  of  past  philosophical  investigation,  and  notice  the 
prominent  attitudes  in  which  philosophy  has  stood,  and  the 
positions  now  occupied  by  distinguished  schools  or  the 
representative  men  who  speak  authoritatively  for  them. 

In  the  earliest  ages  of  Grecian  history  we  find  the  dawn 
of  all  philosophical  thinking,  so  far  as  any  light  has  come 
down  to  our  day.  This  thinking  consisted  in  the  construc 
tion  of  theories,  more  or  less  crude,  concerning  the  origin 
of  material  nature  and  the  arrangement  of  the  world.  The 
various  early  cosmogonies,  though  partially  and  obscurely 
transmitted  to  us,  are  sufficient  to  determine  what  was  the 
scope  and  bearing  of  their  philosophical  speculations. 

The  germ  of  any  intelligible  theory  is  first  found  in  the 
recognition  of  some  of  the  elemental  forces  in  nature,  and 
assuming  that  their  action  was  sufficient  to  account  for  the 
formation  of  the  universe.  The  natures  and  powers  of 
these  elements  were  taken  as  already  in  being,  and  each 
philosopher  assumed  and  applied  them  in  speculation,  as  he 


PKOGKESS    OF   PHILOSOPHICAL   INVESTIGATION.  23 

deemed  them  to  be  the  most  favorable  in  accounting  for 
the  varied  phenomena.  The  Ionic  class  of  philosophers 
were  among  the  earliest,  and  their  philosophizing  was  main 
ly  in  the  above  method.  Thales  made  the  element  of 
water  to  be  the  chief  ingredient  in  the  composition  of 
material  nature,  and  taught  that  the  forces  here  acting  had 
been  the  primitive  agents  in  the  construction  of  the  uni 
verse.  Anaximenes,  in  a  similar  way  of  applying  the 
elemental  forces,  held  that  the  air  had  given  the  first 
formative  processes  in  the  arrangements  of  nature;  and 
Anaximander  had  some  vague  conception  of  higher  ele 
mental  powers  not  in  any  distinct  form  of  manifestation, 
but  existing  as  a  chaos  of  rudimental  being,  out  of  which 
an  orderly  arrangement  ultimately  emerged.  These  re 
cognized,  each  in  his  way,  the  presence  of  efficient  agen 
cies  already  in  existence,  but  seem  not  to  have  arisen  to 
any  speculative  conclusions  concerning  the  origin  of  any 
of  these  elemental  forces  that  they  assumed  as  active  in  the 
formation  of  worlds.  There  was  some  first  cause,  but 
they  did  not  go  beyond  already  existing  elementary  forces 
to  find  it. 

Pythagoras  is  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  of  the  early 
philosophers,  and  enough  is  transmitted  to  us  to  prove  that 
his  clearness  and  force  of  philosophic  thought  was  quite  be 
yond  the  age  in  which  he  flourished.  He  seems  to  have 
apprehended  the  distinct  faculty  of  the  human  mind  to  at 
tain  to  truths  beyond  the  sensuous  perceptions,  and  to  reach 
necessary  and  immutable  principles.  The  axioms  which  de 
termine  in  the  combinations  of  numbers,  and  the  regulative 
proportions  in  mathematical  formulae,  and  the  harmony  ot 
tones  in  music  had  been  intuitively  apprehended  by  him, 


24:  INTRODUCTION. 

and  he  had  hence  learned  to  guide  his  philosophical  specu 
lations  by  those  permanent  truths  that  must  condition  and 
correct  all  the  fleeting  perceptions  of  the  sense,  and  by 
which  must  be  interpreted  and  explained  all  the  seeming 
anomalies  and  contradictions  in  the  phenomenal  world.  He 
had  learned  to  apply  principles  to  facts,  and  thus  had  found 
the  right  method  for  a  true  philosophy.  The  effort  to  clothe 
his  systematic  thought  in  mathematical  phraseology  and  to 
represent  the  physical  forces  of  nature  under  the  forms  and 
ratios  of  number,  has  left  very  much  that  remains  to  us  of 
his  philosophy,  from  the  representations  of  those  who  fol- 
lowed  him,  quite  ambiguous  and  obscure;  but  it  is  still 
easy  to  gain  a  correct  and  profound  meaning  from  many  of 
these  representations.  Others,  that  are  so  enigmatical  that 
little  can  be  made  from  them,  were  probably  clear  in  his 
own  apprehension,  and  need  now  only  the  necessary  clue  to 
lead  us  through  the  obscurities  to  a  consistent  meaning. 

The  origin  of  the  chaotic  elements  of  the  universe  was 
not  yet  approached  in  their  philosophizing,  nor  had  there 
been  any  distinct  conception  of  some  independent  author 
by  whom  a  proper  creation,  a  beginning  of  things,  could  be 
made.  Parmenides  argued  that  non-being  was  incon 
ceivable,  and  that  as  something  could  not  come  from 
nothing,  therefore  creation,  in  the  sense  of  absolute  origi 
nation,  was  impossible.  Empedocles  also  taught,  that  the 
elementary  matter  of  the  universe,  in  the  hyle,  or  primary 
rudimental  substance,  was  itself  uncreated  and  indestructi 
ble.  Heraclitus  taught  that  this  elementary  matter  was  in 
constant  flux,  and  that  such  perpetual  flow  of  the  compo 
nent  elements  kept  nature  in  a  continual  succession  of  be 
coming  and  departing  phenomena ;  but  he  recognized 


PKOGBESS    OF   PHILOSOPHICAL   INVESTIGATION.  25 

nothing  that  could  originate  and  orderly  control  and  guide 
these  flowing  movements.  He  held  all  things  to  be  of  fire, 
and  yet  not  in  the  same  way  that  the  Ionic  philosophers 
had  applied  the  forces  of  the  natural  elements,  but  rather 
because  fire  is  of  so  penetrating  a  nature,  and  decomposing 
other  substances,  and  thus  keeping  nature  perpetually  fluid 
and  agitated.  Later,  among  the  Sophists,  Protagoras  took 
this  constant  arising  and  departing,  as  the  necessary  result 
from  our  mode  of  knowing,  and  in  which  all  things  must 
be  fleeting  and  transient  as  our  sensations  present  them. 
Man  w^as  made  the  measure  of  all  things,  and  to  every 
man,  his  owrn  consciousness  in  his  perceptions  must  be  to 
him  the  truth.  What  his  senses  gave,  that,  to  him,  the 
things  themselves  were,  and  every  man  must  follow  his  own 
measure. 

The  old  atomic  philosophy,  again,  reduced  all  of  nature 
to  an  original  being  in  indivisible  and  indestructible  atoms, 
and  brought  those  atoms  together  in  bodies,  either  by  a 
falling  together,  or  by  an  inner  deflecting  force,  which 
turned  them  out  of  their  proper  course  in  their  descent, 
and  thus  collected  them  in  masses.  There  was  no  occasion 
for  a  creating  and  superintending  Deity,  for  all  things  were 
provided  in  the  original  atoms.  The  whole  philosophy  was 
entirely  atheistic. 

Anaxagoras  seems  first  to  have  found  and  traced  the  in 
dices  of  some  intelligent  adaptations  to  ends  in  nature,  and 
that  such  adaptations  were  the  evidence  of  design ;  and  he 
accordingly  taught  that  there  was  a  Mind  concerned  in  the 
formation  of  the  worlds  from  their  chaotic  state.  But  this 
vou?,  or  intelligence,  was  apprehended  rather  as  subjectively 
in  the  world  itself,  and  a  kind  of  inworking  power  that 


26  INTRODUCTION. 

ordered  and  arranged  its  changes  as  an  indwelling  law,  than 
any  independent  and  personal  agent.  With  him,  there  was 
no  rising  above  nature  and  apprehending  a  supernatural  and 
rational  Creator  and  Governor,  but  merely  an  attainment 
of  the  facts  of  design,  and  workings  of  an  inward  intelli 
gence,  without  referring  them  to  any  thing  beyond  nature 
itself.  The  world  was,  and  had  its  own  intelligent  activity 
within  itself,  and  thus  the  universe  was  mind  as  well  as 
matter. 

PLATO  was  the  great  master  philosopher  of  the  age. 
He  not  only  recognized  clearly  the  voOs,  or  intelligence, 
manifested  in  the  adaptations  of  nature,  as  they  had  been 
found  and  taught  by  Anaxagoras,  but  he  referred  this  intel 
ligent  adaptation  to  ends,  directly  to  a  supreme  Deity.  He 
apprehended  also,  more  clearly  and  comprehensively  than 
Pythagoras,  those  necessary  and  immutable  principles, 
which,  antecedently  to  all  facts,  regulate  and  determine  in 
the  production  of  facts,  and  necessitate  the  conditions  in 
the  ongoings  of  nature.  He  is  emphatically  the  rational 
thinker  of  humanity,  and  his  conception  of  philosophy  that 
which  must  correct  all  subsequent  erroneous  methods  of 
speculation.  Only  in  returning  to  his  method,  can  modern 
wanderers  in  new  paths  be  turned  about  again  into  the  old 
and  safe  highway.  With  Plato,  the  universe  stands  out  as 
one  consistent  whole  in  itself,  and  this  universe  the  product 
of  an  independent  and  personal  Creator.  The  Absolute 
Good  had,  from  eternity,  the  Ideas,  or  Archetypes,  in  him 
self,  and  he  produced  and  fashioned  the  universe  from  him 
self  accordingly.  Xenophanes  had,  before  this,  generalized 
the  many  into  the  one,  and  made  all  to  stand  as  parts  of 
the  whole,  and  had  called  this  whole,  God.  He  was  in 


PROGRESS   OF   PHILOSOPHICAL   INVESTIGATION.  27 

truth,  the  first  philosophical  Pantheist.  But  Plato's  whole 
was  the  whole  of  nature  only — the  created  universe — 
having  the  Deity  utterly  above  and  independent  of  itself. 
Sometimes,  it  is  true,  that  the  insoluble  difficulty  of  account 
ing  for  evil  under  the  absolute  dominion  of  the  Good,  leads 
Plato  to  reason  as  if  matter  was  the  source  of  all  evil,  and 
that  this  had  an  existence,  as  it  were,  independent  of  God, 
and  in  this  way  freeing  God  from  connection  with  evil 
which,  in  the  necessity  of  the  case,  could  not  be  excluded. 
But  this  is  not  the  doctrine  systematically  held  and  taught 
by  Plato.  In  the  Tima3us,  the  matured  and  labored  philos 
ophy  of  Plato  is  given ;  and  here  we  have  one  supreme  Ab 
solute  Mind,  producing  the  Universe  from  himself  and 
making  it  one  living  whole  by  infusing  all  through  it  the  in 
forming  Idea  as  the  soul  of  the  world.  God  is,  and  then 
the  world  is  made  by  him,  and  the  intelligent  Idea  or  law 
is  put  into  it,  and  thus  nature  moves  on,  as  a  living  thing, 
to  fulfil  its  grand  design. 

The  Platonic  philosophy  has  its  first  mover,  in  the  ac 
ceptation  of  an  uncaused  originator.  Movement  is  not  only 
locomotion,  or  progress  in  space,  but  it  includes  all  changes. 
Motion  in  space ;  growth  and  decrease ;  arising  and  vanish 
ing  ;  beginning  and  annihilation ;  the  inner  activity  of 
thought  and  all  spiritual  agency ;  all  involve  the  concep 
tion  of  movement ;  change  ;  and  necessarily  imply  a  con 
stant  or  permanent,  from  which  all  change  must  spring 
That  which  is  mutable,  and  thus  perishable,  has  been  gene 
rated  from  that  which  is  unchangeable  and  eternal.  The 
mutable  is  the  subject  of  sensuous  knowledge  and  comes 
within  experience ;  the  constant  and  eternal  can  be  cog 
nized  only  in  the  rational  intellect.  An  immutable  and 


28  INTRODUCTION. 

eternal  God,  having  in  himself  the  patterns,  or  perfect  ideas 
of  all  things,  generated  the  Universe  from  himself;  vital 
ized  or  ensouled  it,  by  putting  the  eternal  Ideas  into  it ; 
thus  making  nature  to  possess  a  living  force  and  an  orderly 
intelligent  activity.  The  Universe  is  itself,  thus,  a  true 
good,  as  the  free  product  of  the  absolute  Good ;  and  having 
efficiency,  activity,  orderly  intelligent  progress,  it  is  spoken 
of  by  Plato  as  if  it  were  itself  a  living  thing,  "  a  blessed 
god." 

This  Platonic  philosophy  completely  avoids  both  Athe 
ism  and  Pantheism,  and  is  thoroughly  Theistic.  The 
pagan  polytheism  which  it  recognizes  is  in  no  sense  contra 
dictory  to  pure  monotheism.  The  Absolute  Spirit  is  ever 
held  as  supreme,  independent,  and  eternal.  He  first  makes 
soul,  as  better  and  thus  older  than  body ;  and  from  this  soul 
of  the  universe,  as  originated  direct  from  the  Absolute 
Good,  there  is  successively  generated  all  other  spirits,  and 
with  Plato,  all  spiritual  being  is  a  god.  The  Absolute 
Good  is,  however,  with  him  the  God  of  all  gods.  The 
philosophy  falters  in  nothing  that  is  necessary  to  a  true  per 
sonal  Deity  ;  a  God  utterly  supernatural,  and  wholly  dis 
tinct  from  and  independent  of  the  universe  which  he 
makes  and  governs.  The  theology  is  conceived  and  pre 
served  pure  and  unadulterated  from  any  material  condition 
ing  or  physical  necessitating.  But  while  his  philosophy  of 
the  material  Universe  proceeds  always  in  the  true  method 
of  accounting  for  fact  by  principle,  yet  is  there  not  unfre- 
quently  a  very  imperfect  apprehension  of  principle,  and 
thus  often  a  wide  misapplication  of  it.  Physical  facts  were 
but  partially  attained  and  confusedly  apprehended,  and  the 
age  of  humanity  was  not  then  sufficiently  advanced  to  be 


PROGRESS   OF   PHILOSOPHICAL   INVESTIGATION.  29 

able  to  read  clearly  the  law  in  the  fact,  because  of  this  im 
perfect  comprehension  of  the  fact.  The  insight  of  reason 
was,  with  Plato,  superlatively  penetrating,  but  the  ground 
in  which  the  eternal  principles  must  reveal  themselves  was 
not  plain  and  full  before  him.  The  great  fact  of  a  creation 
was  clear,  and  he  saw  in  it  the  certainty  of  a  free  and  in 
dependent  Creator ;  and  the  great  truth,  that  this  creation 
must  conform  to  the  immutable  Ideas,  or  principles  of  abso 
lute  reason,  was  clear,  but  all  these  principles  could  not  be 
exactly  attained,  because  the  laws  in  the  phenomenal  facts 
which  disclose  them  had  not  been  minutely  observed.  Only 
reason  can  see  the  principle  in  the  fact,  but  to  reason,  the 
apprehended  fact  is  often  the  only  ground  in  which  the 
Eternal  Idea  will  present  itself.  The  creating  genius, 
which  may  originate  its  own  subjective  conceptions,  in 
which  it  shall  beforehand  see  all  objective  laws  that  shall 
exist,  would  be  more  than  human. 

The  great  merit  of  Plato,  therefore,  is  not  the  fulness 
and  exactness  of  a  religious  system — for  in  many  doctrines 
there  is  the  deficiency  and  error  which  was  to  have  been 
anticipated  in  a  pagan — nor  the  thoroughness  and  faultless- 
ness  of  his  system  of  natural  science — for  his  ignorance  of 
many  facts  made  him  falter  in  the  attainment  and  applica 
tion  of  many  principles — but  the  prompt  introduction  and 
steadfast  maintenance  of  the  true  method  of  all  philosophiz 
ing  relatively  to  the  origin  of  the  universe.  His  concep 
tion  of  a  true  rational  cosmology  is  perfect.  He  has  both 
a  theology,  and  a  philosophy,  and  he  puts  and  keeps  both  in 
their  proper  places.  He  never  degrades  the  supreme  Good 
to  be  the  mere  animus  mundi,  nor  does  he  exalt  nature  to 
the  throne  of  the  Deity.  His  "  soul  of  the  world"  wholly 


30  INTRODUCTION. 

dispenses  with  the  necessity  of  a  Deus  ex  machina,  and 
gives  to  the  Universe  perpetual  efficiency  and  movement ; 
but  this  infused  intelligence  and  power  is  still  the  creature 
of  God,  and  working  orderly  and  rationally.  Plato  never 
contents  himself  with  bare  facts,  but  the  fact  is  as  nothing 
to  him  till  he  can  bring  it  under  the  determination  of  a 
principle.  He  recognizes  in  the  supreme  Good,  an  agency 
that  can  absolutely  begin ;  an  independent  personality  that 
can  originate  from  himself,  without  the  supposition  of  an 
already  previously  constituted  nature  causing  him  to  do 
this.  His  God  is  supernatural ;  Spirit  in  liberty ;  Absolute 
personality ;  and  the  created  Universe  is  the  free  rational 
product  of  this  God;  intelligible  and  wholly  explicable 
from  the  eternal  Ideas ;  a  consistent  cosmos ;  fact  pervaded 
by  principle. 

Since  the  age  of  Plato,  philosophy  has  been  little 
Platonic.  The  New  Academy  had  nothing  of  his  spirit. 
The  New-Platonism  of  the  Alexandrian  school  was,  also, 
altogether  a  corruption.  The  blending  of  Orientalism 
made  it  a  perversion  and  not  a  perpetuation  of  Platonism. 
The  intellectual  vision,  by  which  the  human  soul  appre 
hended  the  eternal  Ideas,  and  came  to  the  recognition  of 
the  supreme  Good,  was  turned  to  an  absorbing  silent  medi 
tation,  in  which  it  was  sought  to  identify  the  contemplating 
philosopher  with  the  contemplated  Deity,  and  give  the 
human  soul  to  be  swallowed  up  in  the  divine. 

The  AKISTOTELIAN  PHILOSOPHY  at  once,  after  Plato, 
struck  determinately  into  quite  another  path.  The  too 
much  extended  and  thereby  confused  application  of  the 
Idea,  by  Plato,  had  made  the  Aristotelian  philosophizing 
necessary.  In  the  Idea  Plato  had  included  not  only  the 


PKOGKESS   OF   PHILOSOPHICAL   INVESTIGATION.  31 

archetypes  which  were  eternally  in  the  Divine  Reason,  and 
the  primitive  forces  which  are  the  principles  or  germs  from 
which  universal  nature  is  developed,  but  also  all  general 
conceptions  from  which,  by  virtue  of  their  participation 
therein,  all  the  particulars  of  the  class  have  their  being,  and 
these  ideas  in  this  broad  sense  were  also  held  by  him  to  be 
true  and  valid  realities ;  it  thus  became  a  demand  of  the 
reason  that  this  broad  assumption  of  real  being  should  be 
critically  examined.  Originally,  in  its  founder,  the  Aris 
totelian  philosophy  used  the  insight  of  reason,  and  recog 
nized  the  Eternal  principles  necessary  for  all  facts,  as  really 
as  the  Platonic.  All  physics  was  made  to  strike  its  root 
and  find  its  explication  only  in  metaphysics.  The  prima 
philosophic*  was  essential  to  all  philosophy.  But  the  study 
was  intently  and  intentionally  turned  to  follow  out  nature 
on  the  phenomenal  side,  and  not  to  hold  philosophy  per 
petually  under  the  control  of  eternal  principles.  Generalized 
facts  were  themselves  put  as  principles,  and  a  classification 
of  phenomena  under  general  facts  came  to  be  recognized  as 
philosophy.  Genera  and  species,  put  as  categories  under 
which  might  be  classified  all  particulars,  took  the  place  of 
the  eternal  ideas,  and  instead  of  recognizing  any  being 
above  sense,  the  veritable  and  immutable  ideas  of  Plato 
were  said  to  be  only  "  things  of  sense  immortalized."  At 
length,  among  his  later  followers,  empty  words,  names  in 
stead  of  things,  absorbed  the  whole  attention ;  and  the 
purely  logical  understanding  became  the  entire  faculty  for 
philosophizing,  and  this  wholly  exhausted  itself  in  running 
through  all  the  processes  of  syllogistic  reasoning.  Reason,  as 
"  the  vision  and  the  faculty  divine,"  distinct  from  the  faculty 
connecting  in  logical  judgments,  was  so  completely  disused 


32  INTRODUCTION. 

and  overlooked,  that  it  ceased  to  be  recognized  as  a  dis 
tinct  fact  in  psychology.  The  law  of  the  syllogism  admit 
ted  no  distribution  in  the  conclusion  which  had  not  already 
been  gathered  in  the  major  proposition,  and  the  whole 
labor  only  analyzed  what  they  had,  but  added  nothing  new. 
Experience  attained  all  the  facts ;  abstraction  and  generali 
zation  gave  the  logical  notions  ;  and  the  syllogistic  process 
analyzed  and  distributed  in  specific  conclusions.  A  clearer 
knowledge  of  what  they  already  had  was  secured,  but 
nothing  new  was  added,  and  nothing  philosophically  ex 
pounded  in  its  principle. 

On  emerging  from  the  long  and  unsatisfactory  strife  of 
the  scholastic  logic,  the  human  thought  turned  mainly  into 
two  distinct  channels.  CAKTESIANISM,  having  some  alliance 
with  Platonism,  ran  out  its  course  the  earliest.  This  phi 
losophy  awakes  in  doubt,  and  casting  around  for  what  may 
resolve  all  doubt  into  clear  certainty,  and  assuming  that 
clearness  is  the  test  of  truth,  it  finds  an  undoubted  fact  of 
thinking  clearly  in  the  consciousness.  Here  is  the  starting 
point  for  all  philosophy,  and  hence  the  famous  dictum  of 
Des  Cartes — Cogito,  ergo  sum.  This  is  as  much  as  saying 
— there  is  a  thinking,  and  by  thinking  myself  is  found. 
Extension  is  also  as  clearly  given  in  the  consciousness  as 
thought,  and  these  two,  thought  and  extension,  are  the 
essence  of  all  being.  The  first  is  distinctive  of  spiritual 
being,  and  the  last  of  material;  and  these  two  are  so  wholly 
unlike  and  disparate,  that  no  intercommunion  can  subsist 
between  them.  All  interchange  of  activity  between  mind 
and  matter,  must  be  effected  by  the  interposition  of  the 
Deity ;  and  hence  the  general  doctrine  of  "  divine  assist 
ance,"  for  all  communication  of  the  material  with  the  spir- 


PKOGKESS    OF   PHILOSOPHICAL   INVESTIGA' 

itual.  The  Deity  was  an  a  priori  assumption,  fr  ^ 
prominence  and  clearness  of  the  idea,  which  in  itself  in 
volved  a  necessity.  Extension,  with  its  two  modes  of  rest 
and  motion,  admitted  of  being  broken  into  parts,  and  hence 
the  atoms ;  hence,  also,  the  vortices  induced  in  the  univer 
sal  breaking  up,  the  collection  of  the  differently  ground  up 
atoms  into  their  appropriate  spheres,  and  thereby  the  gen 
eral  arrangement  of  the  universe. 

Geulincx  added  the  perpetual  interposition  of  the 
Deity,  in  all  occasions  when  the  spirit  acted  upon  matter, 
or  was  affected  by  matter,  and  thus  introduced  the  doc 
trine  of  "  Occasional  Causes ; "  and  Malebranche  reconciled 
the  spiritual  perception  of  material  objects,  by  the  exist 
ence  of  all  things  in  the  Deity;  and  thus,  through  this 
divine  medium,  matter  could  be  perceived  by  spirit,  and 
hence  his  doctrine  that  "  we  see  all  things  in  God."  Spi 
noza  ultimately  finished  this  order  of  thought,  by  bringing 
the  duality  of  thought  and  extension  into  complete  unity, 
and  identified  both  in  a  higher  Infinite  substance.  This 
Infinite  substance  is  made  the  ground  of  all  being ;  and  all 
the  various  manifestations  of  both  thought  and  extension, 
spirit  and  matter,  are  but  the  varied  attributes  of  the  one 
Infinite  substance. 

Leibnitz,  it  is  true,  changed  the  dead  atoms  of  Des 
Cartes  into  reflecting  or  envisaging  monads,  and  pre-ar 
ranged  them  so  as  to  give  their  representations  harmo 
niously  one  with  another,  and  made  this  "  pre-established 
harmony  "  to  fulfil  the  purposes  of  the  "  divine  assistance  " 
and  the  "  occasional  causes  "  before  given ;  but  the  Carte 
sian  philosophy  is  truly  consummated  in  Spinozism.  No 
movement  of  thought  can  pass  beyond  the  Infinite  sub- 


34:  INTRODUCTION. 

stance ;  and  all  theology,  and  all  philosophy,  have  the  same 
source,  for  the  Infinite  substance  is  the  only  God,  and  the 
philosophy  of  the  universe  is  but  the  recognition  of  God's 
manifested  attributes.  The  Infinite  substance,  when  sub 
jected  to  reflection,  is  truly  only  a  substratum  for  the  phe 
nomena  of  thought  and  extension,  and  is  itself  wholly  dead 
and  inert,  except  that  it  admits  of  these  attributes  to  in 
here  in  it.  As  a  theology,  it  could  not  satisfy ;  for  this 
dead,  inert,  impersonal  substance,  was  nothing  that  could 
be  loved  or  worshipped.  It  solely  sustained  the  spiritual 
and  material  worlds,  but  it  could  neither  create  nor  govern 
them.  As  a  philosophy,  it  could  just  as  little  satisfy ;  since, 
although  it  furnished  a  unity  for  the  disparate  conceptions 
of  thought  and  extension,  yet  was  it  a  mere  logical  unity, 
and,  though  placed  at  the  centre,  could  exert  no  efficiency 
and  possess  no  intelligent  law  or  rational  principle.  The 
philosophic  thought,  dwelling  upon  this  Infinite  substance, 
could  do  nothing  with  it,  nor  make  any  thing  out  of  it.  It 
revealed  nothing,  it  interpreted  nothing. 

Cartesianism  began  with  the  Platonic  views  of  a  "  first 
mover,"  and  the  competency  to  attain  and  apply  a  priori 
principles ;  and  the  philosophy  was  carried  onwards  by  at 
tempting  to  apply  the  insight  of  reason,  and  follow  the 
determinations  of  eternal  ideas.  But  this  was  made  absurd 
and  impossible,  since  matter  was  essentially  mere  exten 
sion,  passive,  inert,  and  lawless ;  and  even  all  assumed  spir 
itual  divine  action  upon  it  was  in  violation  of  its  fundamen 
tal  doctrine — the  essential  incommunicability  of  all  spirit 
with  matter.  At  last,  both  spirit  and  matter  were  put  in 
a  substance  which  merely  held  them  in  identity,  but  could 
neither  use  nor  control  them.  God  and  the  universe  were 


PROGRESS   OF   PHILOSOPHICAL   INVESTIGATION.  35 

one ;  but  the  pantheistic  unity  was  utterly  dry  and  dead  at 
the  heart,  for  it  had  no  personality  there  with  which  piety 
could  commune,  and  110  principle  there  with  which  philoso 
phy  could  work. 

The  other  channel  of  thought  was  the  BACONIAN  INDUC 
TIVE  LOGIC.  This  has  run  a  much  longer  course,  and  turn 
ed  in  more  varied  directions,  and  yet  it  has  mostly  kept 
itself  at  a  further  remove  from  the  great  Platonic  requi 
sition,  that  ah1  philosophy  must  maintain  an  interpreting 
immutable  principle  at  the  centre. 

Ah1  the  old  scholastic  syllogisms  were  built  upon  the 
analytical  dictum,  that  what  is  true  of  the  whole  must  be 
true  of  all  the  parts.     This  could  lead  to  no  extension  of 
knowledge,  for  it  obliged  that  the  truth  for  the  whole 
should  be  attained  before  it  went  to  the  work  of  distribu 
ting  to  the  parts.    The  Inductive  Logic  exactly  reverses 
the  dictum,  and  builds  upon  the  judgment,  that  what  is 
true  of  all  the  parts  is  true  of  the  whole.     This  allows 
scope   for   extending  knowledge,   for   it  .encourages   and 
obliges  to  the  attainment  of  the  truth  for  all  the  parts  be 
fore  concluding  upon  the  truth  for  the  whole.     We  might 
anticipate  that  such  an  impulse  would  not  rest  in  barren 
results.    All  means  to  attain  the  truth  of  the  parts  will  be 
desirable,  and  at  once  put  in  requisition.     If,  now,  we  may 
here  rest  upon  the  Platonic  method,  and  from  the  insight 
of  reason  can  affirm  that  nature,  as  itself  a  fact,  has  been 
made  after  the  determinations  of  eternal  principles,  then 
we  know  that  such  determining  principles  must  run  their 
lines  all  through  nature,  and  we  shall  find  no  fact  in  nature 
that  is  not  bound  up  by  laws  with  its  fellows.     Instead, 
then,  of  trying  to  attain  all  the  facts  which  go  to  make  up 


36  INTRODUCTION. 

the  whole  by  a  particular  experiment  for  each,  we  may  be 
safely  content  with  an  experience  that  reaches  so  far  as 
fairly  to  convince  that  nature's  law  has  therein  been  found, 
and  then  we  may  cease  from  all  further  experiment,  and 
logically  conclude  upon  the  truth  for  the  whole.  We  have 
found  nature's  law,  and  we  know  that  this  law  must  hold 
all  the  parts,  and  the  short  turn  of  logic  answers  for  all  the 
long  labor  of  a  universal  experience. 

So  Bacon,  and  long  before  Bacon,  so  Aristotle  philoso 
phized  ;  and  hence  the  organon  of  the  latter,  and  the  no- 
vum  organon  of  the  former.  But  if  the  Platonic  doctrine 
is  all  assumption,  and  the  reason's  insight  of  principle  and 
law  in  nature  is  a  delusion,  then  must  our  actual  expe 
rience  run  through  every  part  before  we  may  at  all  con 
clude  upon  the  truth  for  the  whole.  The  inductive  logic 
is  open  to  skepticism  on  all  sides,  so  soon  as  we  deny  that 
reason  is  capable  to  attain  and  put  eternal  principles  at  its 
foundation.  Without  this,  we  have  no  right  to  assign  any 
laws  to  nature,  and  can  only  say,  so  far  forth  as  experience 
has  gone,  so  the  facts  are ;  but  we  have  nothing  to  sustain 
our  footsteps  beyond  experience.  And  if  we  should  deduce 
a  general  judgment  from  an  induction  of  many  particulars, 
as  if  the  actual  experiment  had  extended  to  all,  such  an  as 
sumed  general  judgment  could  only  include  the  bare  fact, 
and  could  give  no  principle  that  could  interpret  it,  and  we 
could  only  use  it  to  classify  particular  facts  under  it,  but 
not  in  any  way  philosophically  to  explain  them. 

Thus,  without  the  insight  of  reason,  the  inductive  logic 
begins  and  prosecutes  its  work  in  credulity,  and  when  it 
deduces  its  general  fact,  it  can  never  evince  its  validity, 
and  the  assumption  can  only  be  of  a  dry,  hard,  insoluble 


PROGRESS   OF   PHILOSOPHICAL   INVESTIGATION.  37 

fact,  which  can  never  find  its  principles  to  explain  why  it 
must  have  been  thus  and  not  otherwise.  We  may  make 
one  fact  dependent  upon  another,  and  thus  upward  through 
an  indefinite  series,  but  we  can  reach  to  no  principle  that 
supports  and  expounds  the  whole  chain. 

A  true  inductive  process  must  both  begin  in  the  appli 
cation  of  immutable  principle  for  the  determination  of  na 
ture,  and  its  most  general  facts  must  themselves  be  inter 
preted  by  principles  which  determine  them,  and  then  it 
becomes  a  safe  guide  and  auxiliary  to  philosophy;  but 
when  used  by  such  as  discard  the  insight  of  reason,  and 
deny  the  power  of  the  human  mind  to  go  beyond  the  fact, 
it  becomes  not  merely  useless  to  philosophy,  but  is  itself 
utterly  unphilosophical.  At  the  best,  it  cannot  itself  be  a 
philosophy,  but  only  an  instrument  in  the  interest  of  phi 
losophy;  but  as  now  mostly  used,  in  the  rejection  of  all  a 
priori  principle,  it  is  wholly  illogical  and  illegitimate.  In 
its  own  proper  field  of  attaining  facts  in  the  service  of  phi 
losophy,  and  thus  for  enlarging  the  field  of  discovery,  the 
inductive  logic  has  done  much,  and  become  the  wonder  and 
boast  of  the  age,  which,  as  practically  utilitarian,  has  been 
fashioned  and  almost  wholly  actuated  by  it.  Let  it  have 
its  due,  but  let  it  not  usurp  honors  which  are  not  its  due. 
Let  it  be  employed  to  the  utmost  hi  its  proper  field,  but 
let  it  not  come  out  of  its  place,  arrogantly  to  dictate  in 
matters  about  which  it  can  know  nothing.  It  must  per 
petually  walk  in  the  borrowed  light  of  a  higher  faculty, 
or  it  becomes  inevitably  both  unphilosophical  and  athe 
istic. 

Take  the  inductive  logic  alone,  and  cut  off  all  commu 
nication  of  immutable  principles  in  the  insight  of  the  reason, 


38  INTRODUCTION. 

and  proudly  as  she  may  seem  to  walk  over  the  field  of  phe 
nomenal  nature,  yet  can  she  vindicate  her  possession  logi 
cally  to  no  fact  she  assumes  beyond  actual  experiment,  and 
can  never  expound  a  single  fact  she  gathers,  nor  ever  cast 
a  glance  within  the  region  of  the  supernatural  and  eternal. 
Make  this  the  highest  operation  of  the  human  mind,  and 
absolutely  shut  out  of  human  possession  all  knowledge  that 
it  cannot  attain  and  vindicate,  and  a  personal,  absolute 
Deity  can  then  be  neither  proved  nor  conceived,  and  you 
thus  first  exclude,  what  must  then  be,  the  gross  delusions 
and  credulities  of  theology.  All  facts  are  then  also  mere 
facts,  with  no  eternally  conditioning  principles  to  deter 
mine  them,  and  you  thus  exclude,  what  must  then  be,  the 
illusory  and  bewildering  lights  of  metaphysic.  The  theo- 
logic  age,  old  in  its  venerable  but  mischievous  superstitions, 
passes  utterly  away  from  the  generations  of  humanity ;  and 
next,  the  metaphysic  age  passes,  with  its  lofty  and  pro 
found,  but  empty  speculations,  neither  of  them  again  ever 
to  return.  All  religion  and  all  philosophy  have  passed  be 
neath  the  horizon,  and  the  complete  and  final  positivism  of 
Auguste  Comte  culminates  in  the  heavens.  In  this  the 
full  mission  of  the  inductive  logic  is  accomplished.  She 
began  by  denying  to  the  human  mind  any  higher  light  than 
experience;  she  carried  out  her  varied  experiments,  and 
brought  together  numerous  kindred  facts,  and  deduced 
more  general  facts  from  these  conspiring  individuals ;  she 
arranges  all  carefully  according  to  variety  and  class,  species 
and  genus,  and  with  her  light  shining  fairly  but  exclusively 
upon  these  arranged  facts  of  phenomenal  nature,  she  finds 
the  bold  man  who  does  not  shrink  from  her  logic,  and  who 
well  knows  that  no  modern  speculative  school  can  rebuke 


PROGRESS    OF   PHILOSOPHICAL    INVESTIGATION.  39 

him,  and  he  cries  aloud  to  the  nations  of  the  earth — All 
theology  and  all  philosophy  beyond  this  is  a  fable. 

Positivism  is  the  affirmative  side  of  Hume's  skepticism, 
and  rests  firmly  and  impregnably  on  the  basis  of  the  ex 
clusively  sensational  psychology.  All  the  elements  of  pos 
sible  human  knowledge  are  affirmed  to  be  given  in  the 
senses.  The  understanding  can  reflect  upon  these,  and 
abstract,  compare,  and  combine,  and  thus  attain  new  analyt 
ical  judgments  out  of  them,  but  it  can  add  nothing  more, 
and  attain  nothing  other  than  is  given  in  them.  What  is 
made,  what  comes  as  event,  we  can  know ;  but  the  princi 
ple  determining  the  making,  and  the  order  of  the  coming, 
we  cannot  know ;  all  expectation  that  nature  will  go  on  in 
future,  in  the  order  of  sequence  as  in  the  past,  rests  solely 
on  the  experience  having  become  accustomed  to  it. 
Science  can  affirm  nothing  about  it ;  for  that  there  are  any 
principles  beyond  the  facts,  which  have  put  their  determin 
ing  laws  within  the  facts,  is  beyond  all  human  ken  not  only, 
but  all  human  conception.  The  principle  must  itself  have 
been  once  made,  and  even  its  very  maker  must  have  had  a 
constitutional  nature  that  might  have  been  directly  re 
versed.  It  is  philosophical  to  doubt,  in  every  case  that 
cannot  become  a  fact  for  the  senses.  Thus  Hume ;  and 
Comte  is  exactly  the  counterpart.  We  can  positively 
affirm  so  far  as  experiment  testifies ;  we  can  as  positively 
deny  all  conclusiveness  to  any  affirmation  not  capable  of 
the  testimony  of  experiment;  facts,  and  facts  only,  are 
positive.  And  now,  these  conclusions  are  all  logically  in 
evitable  from  the  premises.  The  psychology  cannot  be 
retained,  and  the  immutable  principles  of  theology  and 
philosophy  be  admitted.  If  the  insight  of  reason  is  not 


40  INTEODTJCTION. 

something  other  and  higher  than  any  judgments  of  the 
logical  understanding,  whether  deductive  or  inductive,  and 
if  the  human  mind  cannot  vindicate  its  right  to  the  posses 
sion  and  application  of  these  immutable  principles,  then 
Hume  has  the  right  to  doubt,  and  Comte  the  right  posi 
tively  to  deny,  that  man  can  have  any  stable  theology  or 
philosophy. 

An  attempt  to  escape  from  this  rigid  exclusion  of  all 
stable  theology  and  philosophy,  is  vainly  made  by  that 
which  calls  itself  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  COMMON  SENSE. 
This  rests  on  the  fact  it  finds,  that  the  human  mind  is 
forced  to  assent  to  what  are  called  "first  truths,"  or 
"primitive  beliefs,"  and  assumes  that  in  these  there  is  a 
sufficient  basis  for  theology  and  philosophy.  Its  strong 
ground  is,  that  from  the  constitution  of  the  human  mind  it 
cannot  expel  the  convictions  occasioned  by  these  "first 
truths."  The  skeptic  and  the  assumed  infidel  are  forced 
to  the  same  conviction,  and  can  never  belie  this  coercion 
of  common  sense,  and  can  pretend  to  be  free  from  it  only 
in  their  speculations.  They  must  rest  on  some  primitive 
conviction,  or  all  affirmation  of  doubting  would  itself  be 
absurd.  Neither  skepticism  nor  positivism  could  affirm 
themselves,  except  by  admitting  the  conclusiveness  of 
common  sense. 

The  argumentum  ad  hominem,  so  pushed,  may  seem 
to  silence  the  gainsaying  skeptic,  and  confirm  the  credu 
lous  disciple,  but  it  is  wholly  sophistical  and  delusive. 
Common  sense  begins  in  the  affirmation  of  the  same  dic 
tum  with  Hume's  Skepticism  and  Comte's  Positivism,  viz. : 
that  the  human  mind  can  never  carry  its  knowledge  be 
yond  facts.  But  it  seeks  to  escape  the  rigid  logic  of  the 


PROGRESS   OF   PHILOSOPHICAL   INVESTIGATION.  4:1 

unbeliever  by  affirming  that  it  finds  this  deeper  fact  in 
humanity,  that  all  men  must  yield  assent  to  the  force  of 
their  "  primitive  beliefs."  True  to  its  fundamental  dictum, 
nothing  but  facts;  it  makes  this  conviction  of  common 
sense  to  be  mere  fact,  unavoidable,  but  yet  wholly  inex 
plicable.  The  human  mind  is  so  made. 

The  old  Grecian  Koival  IVVOLO.I — the  common  rational 
intelligence  /  the  endowment  which  distinguishes  the  man 
from  the  brute — is  held  to  be  a  mere  fact,  and  the  affirma 
tions  of  reason  to  be  as  arbitrary  a  making  as  the  constitu 
tion  of  organic  sensation,  and  thus  there  is  felt  no  scruple 
in  translating  this  term  which  expresses  man's  highest 
prerogative,  by  the  utterly  inadequate  expression,  common 
sense.  The  sum  is  this — the  human  mind  is  so  made,  that 
there  comes  out  the  universal  fact,  of  a  necessary  assent 
to  the  "  primitive  beliefs."  All  is  an  arbitrary  making ; 
unintelligible,  insoluble  fact ;  and  nothing  unmade  can  be 
reached  that  may  give  any  explanation. 

And  now,  what  does  all  this,  but  wrap  the  same  strong 
chain  of  Positivism  one  fold  more  around  our  human 
knowledge,  and  make  its  bondage  to  sensationalism,  and 
its  exclusion  of  all  theology  and  philosophy  the  more  hope 
less?  Common  sense  is  a  thing  made ;  and  its  primitive 
beliefs  are  things  made;  all  unmade  principle  is  beyond 
knowledge  or  conception;  and  even  the  Deity  can  come 
only  within  this  common  sense  conception,  and  himself,  and 
his  principles  of  working  and  governing,  and  the  whole  su 
pernatural  field  of  immortality,  must  fall  back  within  the 
sphere  of  constitutional  existence,  for  all  truth  absolved 
from  the  conditions  of  a  nature  of  things  is  wholly  incon 
ceivable.  The  Creator  who  makes  worlds,  and  the  mill 


42  INTRODUCTION. 

which  grinds  corn,  have  alike  their  constitutional  adapta 
tions  to  their  work,  and  our  conceptions  of  them  can  differ 
nothing  in  kind,  only  the  one  has  a  constitutional  nature 
more  magnificent  than  the  other!  When  the  supplied 
common  sense  is  itself  only  fact,  and  its  highest  attainments 
are  but  facts,  then  surely  common  sense  should  admit  that 
its  theology  and  philosophy  can  deal  with  nothing  beyond 
facts. 

The  deficiencies  of  sensationalism,  and  their  logical 
consequence  in  skepticism,  gave  rise  to  the  CRITICAL 
PHILOSOPHY.  In  many  respects,  this  is  one  of  the  most 
remarkable,  and  in  some  respects,  the  most  productive 
direction  in  which  the  stream  of  human  speculation  has 
been  turned.  Kant  saw  the  inevitable  skeptical  issues  of 
Empiricism,  and  hence  his  Critik  of  Pure  Reason,  to 
escape  therefrom.  His  method  is  wholly  Aristotelian, 
though  he  gathers  his  facts  in  another  field,  and  not  at  all 
Platonic,  although  using  some  of  Plato's  terms.  He  does 
not  start  from  immutable  principles,  in  the  eternal  Ideas, 
and  determine  therefrom  how  all  judgments  in  an  under 
standing  must  be,  but  he  takes  our  human  faculty  of  judg 
ment  as  already  made,  and  by  a  transcendental  analysis  of  it 
determines  how  we  must  know.  It  is  a  critik  of  pure 
reason,  in  the  sense  of  taking  the  facts  of  human  psychol 
ogy  antecedently  to  their  development  in  phenomena,  but 
not  antecedently  to  their  being  in  subjective  faculty; 
before  they  come  out  in  our  consciousness,  but  not  before 
they  have  been  constituted.  The  whole  philosophy  is  a 
priori,  or  transcendental,  not  as  attaining  principles  prior 
to,  or  transcending  facts,  but  only  as  attaining  facts  that 
exist  prior  to,  or  transcending,  our  conscious  experience. 


PKOGKESS   OF   PHILOSOPHICAL   INVESTIGATION.  43 

The  Platonic  reason  attained  and  used  the  eternal,  unmade 
principles,  or  Ideas;  the  Kantian  reason  attains  and  uses 
the  regulative  forms  in  an  already  made  human  under 
standing.  This  truly  Aristotelian  method  prevails  in  all 
the  successors  of  Kant,  in  carrying  forward  the  critical 
philosophy ;  and  the  pure  thinking  is  no  insight  of  reason 
that  gets  in  the  facts  their  determining  principles,  but 
solely  an  analytical  process  that  finds  facts  already  in  the 
human  mind  before  they  have  worked  themselves  out  on 
the  field  of  consciousness.  The  whole  labor,  though  tran 
scending  the  point  of  conscious  experience,  is  still  that  of 
the  logical  understanding  only. 

Kant  assumed  that  the  organic  content,  given  as  envis 
aged  by  the  sense,  was  real ;  but  that  the  human  mind 
possessed  its  own  forms,  or  regulative  conceptions,  and 
these  gave  their  law  to  the  operation  of  the  mind  in  know 
ing  this  content  in  sensation.  To  ^«,  so  made,  our  cogni 
tion  of  objects  must  therefore  conform  to  these  inherent 
regulative  conceptions,  or  categories,  in  our  human  under 
standing.  However  the  things  may  be  in  themselves,  or 
however  other  minds  may  know  them,  our  human  knowl 
edge  must  be  after  these  forms  already  existing  as  facts 
within  us.  The  matter  of  oar  cognitions  had,  thus,  an 
objective  reality,  but  the  forms,  in  which  our  understand 
ings  clothed  the  objects,  had  only  subjective  reality.  Kant 
could  thus  answer  Hume, — we  connect  the  sequences  of 
events  in  nature  in  the  conviction  of  a  fixed  series  of  cause 
and  effect,  not  because  our  experience  has  become  ac 
customed  to  such  an  order,  but  because  such  is  the  law  of 
connecting  in  judgments  by  the  original  constitution  of  the 
human  mind.  But  this  has  still  subjective  certainty  only. 


44:  INTRODUCTION. 

Our  minds  must  know  through  the  connections  of  cause 
and  effect,  and  the  other  categories  given  constitutionally 
within  them ;  perhaps  other  minds  may  know  the  same 
things  in  quite  other  connections.  The  universe,  and  the 
Maker  of  the  universe,  can  be  cognized  only  through  these 
regulative  conceptions,  and  as  we  can  have  no  phenomenal 
content  in  sensation  of  the  Deity,  so  we  cannot  demonstrate 
his  existence,  but  also  just  as  little  can  we  carry  our  de 
monstration  against  his  existence.  The  proof  for  any  su 
persensible  existence  is  from  the  practical  and  not  from 
the  speculative  reason.  The  fact  that  we  are  thus  consti 
tuted,  having  by  the  Critik  been  transcendentally  found, 
enables  us  to  say  a  priori  how  far  the  human  mind  can 
know. 

Fichte,  pursuing  the  transcendental  critik  still  further, 
showed  that  there  was  no  more  ground  for  holding  the 
organic  content,  or  matter,  for  our  cognitions,  to  be  objec 
tively  real,  than  for  holding  the  forms  to  be  so,  under 
which  our  understandings  brought  it.  Both  are  subjec 
tive,  and  the  matter  and  the  form  are  alike  supplied  for 
the  consciousness  by  the  working  of  the  intellectual  self,  or 
the  ego.  The  self,  as  subject,  makes  itself  object  to  itself. 
The  mind  can  envisage  nothing  that  it  does  not  itself  set 
before  it. 

Transcending  consciousness  further  than  Fichte,  and 
going  deeper  into  the  mysteries  of  human  cognition, 
Schelling,  by  an  "Intellectual  Intuition,"  detected  the 
absolute  ego  standing  in  the  mid-point  of  indifference  to 
either  subject  or  object,  and  as  a  bi-polar  agency,  like 
magnetism,  simultaneously  working  each  way,  and  on  the 
one  side  giving  the  object,  and  on  the  other  the  subject. 


PKOGKESS   OF   PHILOSOPHICAL   INVESTIGATION.  45 

He  identified  both  the  subject  and  object  in  this  central 
ego,  which,  back  of  consciousness,  works  out  its  two  poles 
into  consciousness,  and  there  they  appear  as  separately 
Object  known,  and  Subject  knowing. 

But  even  beyond  this  analysis,  there  was  still  an  insoluble 
element  lying  in  this  absolute  ego.  As  a  source  for  both  of 
Fichte's  subjective  and  objective  egos,  Schelling  had  placed 
in  the  mid-point  of  indifference  another  ego,  and  which,  as 
the  absolute  ego,  gave  both  the  others  to  the  consciousness 
with  one  undivided  act.  This  bi-polar  agency,  in  the  abso 
lute  ego,  Schelling  had  assumed  withoiit  any  examination 
or  explanation,  and  with  such  a  thought-agency  assumed, 
he  could  work  out  the  process  of  its  development  into 
universal  nature,  humanity,  and  completed  Deity,  with 
great  precision  and  exactness. 

Hegel  took  this  unsolved  agency  of  Schelling,  and  car 
ried  the  transcendental  analysis  to  a  still  deeper  abstrac 
tion,  for  the  starting-point  of  another  philosophical  devel 
opment.  In  his  Phenomenology,  he  sets  out  from  the 
common  conviction  that  there  is  a  dualism  of  both  subject 
and  object  in  human  cognition,  and  thence  unweaving  the 
dialectical  web  in  which  both  had  been  gathered,  he  found, 
as  the  ultimate  remnant,  a  simple  thought-progress — a 
movement  according  to  the  law  of  thinking ;  a  pure  ac 
tivity  with  no  ground — and  from  this  abstract  thought- 
process,  with  no  substantial  ego,  Hegel  begins  his  philoso 
phy,  and  evolves  the  objective  universe,  the  subjective 
mind,  and  finally  the  universal  mind,  educated  to  self-con 
sciousness,  and  also  to  the  knowledge  that  the  thought- 
process  is  the  only  reality. 

The  phenomenology  is  solely  preparatory  to  the  phi- 


46  INTRODUCTION. 

losophy,  which  must  begin  in  this  pure  thought-process. 
Instead  of  standing  at  the  outside  and  looking  on,  as  Schel- 
ling  had  done,  Hegel  puts  himself  within  the  thought- 
movement.  This  is  a  peculiarity  to  be  marked.  The  stu 
dent  of  this  philosophy  must  not  at  all  look  on,  nor  look 
forward  to  forecast  what  may  come,  but  must  absorb  his 
attention  in  the  movement  itself,  and  let  the  process  bring 
out  in  its  development  what  it  may.  In  this  method,  he 
is  made  to  think  over  again  the  great  thought  of  the  uni 
verse. 

The  critical  philosophy  is  consummated  in  Hegelianism. 
"No  passage  can  be  opened  to  any  further  speculation  in 
this  direction.  The  philosophic  life  in  Germany  is  in  sus 
pended  activity,  and  must  so  be  retained  until  the  appre 
hension  of  the  incompleteness  of  the  critical  method  shall 
induce  to  the  setting  of  some  new  germ  in  quite  another 
soil.  It  began  in  the  attainment  of  facts  which  transcend 
consciousness,  and  from  these  determined  the  modifications 
that  must  be  given  in  consciousness.  From  Kant  to  Hegel 
it  successively  threw  off  more  and  more  of  that  which  had 
any  objective  reality,  till  it  found  itself  at  last  with  only  a 
thought-movement  in  self-repellency ;  a  going  out  each  way 
in  counter-negations ;  a  being  in  what  was  known  as  the 
"  universal  negativity ;"  and  in  the  development  of  such 
abstract  thought-process,  it  assumed  to  determine  all  pos 
sible  human  cognition.  It  dealt  only  with  facts,  though 
transcendentally  attained,  and  ignored  all  immutable  prin 
ciples.  It  concluded,  from  the  facts  found  in  us,  what  and 
how  we  must  know,  and  was  thus  solely  a  critic  of  the 
human  understanding,  without  attempting  to  determine 
any  other  order  of  knowing.  We  have  in  it  a  critic  of 


PEOGKESS    OF   PHILOSOPHICAL   INVESTIGATION.  47 

human  knowledge,  but  no  science  determining  the  validity 
of  any  form  of  knowing.  It  called  itself  rationalism,  but  is 
purely  transcendental  logic.  It  nowhere  brings  in  the 
work  of  the  comprehending  reason,  and  uses  solely  the 
faculty  of  the  connecting  understanding.  It  is,  at  last, 
quite  as  empty  as  the  scholastic  logic,  for  it  excludes  all 
that  is  objectively  real,  and  can  thus  never  rise  out  of  the 
sphere  of  the  subjective  ideal.  That  it  should  carry  out 
and  posit  a  valid  objective,  would  demand  that  it  should 
have  the  eternally  real  within  its  own  subjective  ;  but  this 
is  the  Platonic,  and  not  at  all  the  Germanic  transcendent 
alism.  In  making  the  understanding  void  at  the  begin 
ning,  no  possible  process  of  logical  thinking  can  fill  it  at 
the  close.  It  thus  commences  in  a  specious  delusion,  and 
terminates  in  a  stupendous  dream. 

By  surreptitiously  raising  the  abstract  and  empty 
thought-process  to  a  personality,  and  calling  it  the  "world- 
spirit,"  the  philosophy  could  elaborately  disclose  how  this 
world-spirit  educated  itself  to  self-consciousness,  and  to 
know  the  universe  as  its  own  objective  manifestation.  The 
material  universe  and  the  spiritual  humanity  are  develop 
ments  of  this  absolute  world-spirit,  and  the  destiny  and  the 
immortality  of  man  is,  that  he  see  himself  identical  with 
the  absolute  world-spirit,  and  that  in  the  endless  ongoing 
of  the  thought-process  the  universal  mind  is  coming  out, 
and  the  absolute  is  perfecting  in  self-consciousness,  and  in 
this  is  all  the  Humanity,,  and  Deity,  and  Immortality,  and 
Philosophy,  that  man  can  know.  Surely  Transcendental 
ism,  though  taking  a  longer  road,  and  travelling  through 
much  more  aerial  regions,  has  hardly  come  out  ahead  of 
Common  Sense,  and  done  little  more  than  any  other  school 


48  INTRODUCTION. 

which  admits  only  facts,  to  rescue  Theology  and  Philosophy 
from  Hume's  skepticism  or  Comte's  positivism. 

Thus,  ever,  must  the  labor  of  the  connecting  under 
standing  prove  itself  utterly  incompetent  for  a  valid  theol 
ogy  or  philosophy,  and  this  as  truly  in  the  method  of  in 
duction  and  of  common  sense  as  of  the  scholastic  syllogism, 
and  again  as  truly  in  a  transcendental  critic  as  in  any  other. 
It  must  think  through  a  medium,  and  can  never  originate 
without  something  to  come  from,  and  something  to  put 
forth,  and  must  thus  have  its  Maker  and  Governor  already 
made  and  conditioned.  In  the  contemplation  of  its  most 
profound  abstractions,  broad  inductions,  and  transcendental 
developments,  it  is  ever  within  the  charmed  circle  of  na 
ture,  and  condemned  to  toil  under  the  bondage  of  already 
determined  conditions,  and  we  are  forced  to  cry — 

Unless  above  himself  he  can 
Erect  himself,  how  vain  a  thing  is  man ! 

His  progress  is  a  cycle,  and  his  path  a  tread-mill.  A 
personal  God  is  inconceivable  within  this  sphere,  and  to 
this  sphere  there  can  be  no  conception  of  an  outer  and  a 
beyond.  Theology  cannot  begin,  and  philosophy  cannot 
finish ;  for  the  first  can  find  no  Deity,  and  the  last  can  find 
no  link  in  which  there  is  a  reason  for  the  whole  chain. 

We  have,  at  last,  the  offer  of  ECLECTICISM,  but  it  is  not 
in  a  method  to  afford  us  any  help.  The  name  is  here  with 
no  appropriate  application.  As  the  taking  of  what  is  deem 
ed  to  be  true  from  all  other  systems,  Eclecticism  must  first 
have  its  own  measure,  or  it  cannot  of  right  take  any  thing 
from  any  system ;  and  when  it  has  its  own  measure,  it  has 


PEOGKESS    OF   PHILOSOPHICAL   INVESTIGATION.  49 

already  its  own  philosophic  being  and  method.  In  other 
words,  it  already  exists  before  any  electing,  and  has  its 
own  law  and  method  in  order  to  any  claim  upon  others. 
And  in  its  author  it  has  its  well-expressed  doctrine  and 
method.  Cousin's  method  dispenses  at  once  with  all  tran 
scendental  analysis,  and  attains  the  absolute  by  direct  con 
sciousness.  The  human  mind  has  the  finite,  the  condi 
tioned,  the  relative,  immediately  in  consciousness,  and  to 
these,  the  infinite,  the  unconditioned,  the  absolute,  are  re 
spectively  correlatives.  The  first  cannot  be  in  conscious 
ness  without  the  latter,  for  indeed  the  first  is  nothing  ex 
cept  in  correlation  with  the  latter.  Just  as  the  odd  is 
nothing  without  the  conception  also  of  the  even,  so  the 
finite,  the  relative,  &c.,  are  nothing  without  their  conceived 
correlatives  of  the  infinite,  the  absolute,  &c.  Where  one 
is,  the  other  must  at  the  same  time  be.  In  the  possession 
of  these,  we  have  also  immediately  their  relation  in  con 
sciousness,  and  can  thus  distinguish  the  one  from  the  other. 
Given  the  finite,  there  is  also  at  once  with  this  given,  the 
infinite,  and  the  relation  of  the  two;  and  in  this  apprehen 
sion  of  the  infinite,  the  absolute,  &c.,  we  have  the  con 
scious  knowledge  of  God. 

All  this  is  the  spontaneous  operation  of  the  primitive 
consciousness,  and  thus  belongs  to  all  men  in  common,  and 
may  be  known  as  reason.  But  in  analyzing  this  operation 
and  its  results,  each  man  goes  about  it  in  his  own  way,  and 
each  may  have  his  peculiar  opinion.  Reason  is  thus  com 
mon,  impersonal,  true;  reflection  is  particular,  personal, 
fallible.  Taking  the  veracious  reason,  it  spontaneously 
gives  the  absolute  immediately  and  necessarily  with  every 

relative  that  comes  into  consciousness.     Cousin  takes  can- 
4 


50  INTRODUCTION. 

sality  only  as  the  ground  of  his  relative,  and  thus  the  rela 
tive  cause  at  once  gives  the  absolute  cause,  and  this  abso 
lute  cause  is  the  Deity.  He  further  proceeds,  by  saying, 
that  causality  is  nothing  except  in  action,  and  therefore 
the  absolute  cause  must  act,  and  go  out  into  effect.  The 
universe  is  as  necessarily  from  the  Deity,  as  the  Deity  is 
necessary  to  the  universe.  And,  further,  while  God  must 
go  out  into  effect,  yet  does  he  not  exhaust  himself  in  the 
act  of  manifesting  himself  in  objective  effects ;  He  is,  and 
the  universe  also  is,  and  such  duality,  he  argues,  excludes 
Pantheism. 

But  this  reason,  or  spontaneous  consciousness,  is  still 
only  the  faculty  of  a  connecting  judgment,  and,  as  before 
said,  can  never  attain  to  a  legitimate  theology  or  philoso 
phy.  The  delusion  is  easily  made  transparent.  Because 
the  finite  and  relative  suggest  the  Infinite  and  Absolute,  it 
is  thereby  said  that  we  know  the  Infinite  and  Absolute.  A 
su^o-ested  conception  becomes  a  cognition.  But  beyond 
this  is  the  deeper  delusion,  that  we  attain  a  true  Deity  in 
this  conceived  Infinite  or  Absolute.  Suppose  we  take  the 
finite  as  applied  to  time  or  space,  and  let  this  be  supposed 
truly  to  give  Infinite  time  or  space ;  is  such  Infinite  the 
Deity  ?  Or  again,  suppose  we  have  the  relative  phenom 
ena,  and  these  suggest,  or  even  validly  give,  the  Absolute 
substance ;  is  this  Absolute  substance  the  Deity  ?  Accord 
ing  to  the  philosophy,  both  Infinite  time  or  space,  and 
Absolute  substance,  should  be  God.  But  causality  is  act 
ually  taken,  only  because  causality  may  the  better  be  taken 
as  Creator  and  Ruler,  than  either  time,  space,  or  substance. 
Take  then  Absolute  cause,  and  is  this  the  Deity  ?  Not  at 
all.  It  is  only  a  conception  of  the  logical  understanding, 


PEOGEESS   OF   PHILOSOPHICAL   INVESTIGATION.          51 

and  has  its  inherent  conditioning  just  as  truly  as  any  second 
cause  proceeding  from  it.  It  must  go  out  into  effect ;  yea, 
into  just  the  effect  determined  in  its  own  conditioning.  It 
is  cause  caused,  though  arbitrarily  termed  absolute  cause. 
There  is  here  no  personality ;  no  capacity  to  originate ;  no 
self-determination ;  nothing  of  the  supernatural.  The  ab 
solute  cause  is  nature  still,  and  has  in  it  its  conditioned 
constitution,  and  we  could  never  love  and  worship  it,  nor 
think  a  universe  as  coming  from  it,  except  as  itself  a  part 
of  it.  Such  a  method  can  by  no  possibility  reach  to  a  true 
theology  or  philosophy. 

The  Platonic  philosophy  had  the  conception  of  God,  as 
the  Good,  and  thus  as  moral  personality,  and  not  at  all  as 
absolute  substance  or  absolute  cause.  In  this  conception 
there  was  occasion  given  for  the  cognition  of  God  as  super 
natural,  while  the  restricting  of  the  conception  to  substance 
or  cause,  though  absurdly  applying  the  term  Absolute, 
necessarily  confined  it  still  within  nature.  God  must  be 
author  of  all  substance  and  cause,  and  can  himself  be 
restricted  by  the  conditions  of  no  substances  or  causes. 
His  conditionings  can  only  be  from  the  rational  claims 
which  spring  eternally  from  his  own  rational  being.  "What 
it  behooves  him  to  do  as  due  to  his  own  glory,  or  supreme 
excellency  of  being,  that  only  can  determine  his  action,  and 
not  at  all  the  constituted  nature  of  a  substance  or  of  a 
cause.  Divine  revelation  has  widely  diffused  the  concep 
tion  of  a  God,  absolute,  personal,  supernatural ;  who  origi 
nates  the  natures  of  all  things  "  according  to  the  counsel 
of  his  own  will,"  or,  which  is  the  same  thing,  according  to 
the  claims  of  his  own  rationality,  without  himself  being 
subjected  to  any  nature.  He  looks  only  to  the  Archetypes 


52  INTKODUCTION. 

essentially  within  his  own  rational  Spirit,  for  the  direction 
of  ah1  his  creative  and  administrative  energy.  And  it  is  a 
marvel  and  a  reproach,  that  with  all  this  Platonic  and  this 
Christian  teaching,  the  world's  philosophies  are,  to-day,  all 
radically  materialistic ;  holding  all  being  as  fact,  or  consti 
tutionally  natured ;  and  are  thus  necessarily,  in  the  end, 
Atheistic  or  Pantheistic.  Seen  from  a  comprehensive  point 
of  vision,  they  invariably  and  inevitably  lead  logically  out 
to  a  complete  exclusion  of  an  absolute,  personal,  super 
natural  being  from  human  knowledge  and  even  from  human 
conception.  The  reason  of  universal  humanity  calls  for, 
and  acknowledges,  an  unbegun,  unmade,  and  supernatural 
Beginner,  Maker,  and  Finisher  of  ah1  that  has  a  nature ; 
and  the  Christian  heart  worships  a  Jehovah,  whose  sover 
eignty  and  authority  lie  underived  and  solely  in  the  abso 
lute  behest  of  his  own  reason ;  while  all  speculative  phi 
losophy  has  come  to  ignore  and  deny  every  conception 
which  cannot  be  brought  within  the  connections  of  the 
logical  understanding  and  subjected  to  the  determinations 
of  some  constitutional  nature.  The  conception  of  a  Being 
who  may  begin  from  himself,  and  create  objectively  to  him 
self,  without  finding  himself  caused  to  do  so  by  any  pre 
vious  conditioning,  seems  utterly  to  have  fallen  out  of  all 
philosophical  intelligence.  "Where  is  the  philosophy,  which 
can  logically  from  its  method,  present  a  God  to  our  ac 
ceptance  as  a  causa  causans,  without  being  thoroughly  a 
causa  causata  ?  Who  seems  to  feel  any  shock  at  the  ab 
surdity  and  impiety  of  talking  about  the  nature  of  God, 
and  the  nature  of  the  divine  will,  as  if  the  awful  preroga 
tives  of  the  supernatural  could  be  brought  and  bound 
within  the  conditions  of  the  natural  ?  Our  religious  con- 


THEOLOGY   AND   PHILOSOPHY   POSSIBLE.  53 

sciousness  is  clear  and  complete  for  an  absolutely  super 
natural  ;  our  philosophic  consciousness  is,  dogmatically  or 
in  its  own  supineness,  trained  to  the  restrictions  of  a  rela 
tively  conditioned  nature  of  things.  It  is  among  the 
strongest  evidences  of  the  deep  and  permanent  working 
of  the  immortal  reason  within  the  soul,  that  notwithstand 
ing  the  wide-spread  prevalence  of  a  philosophy  everywhere 
sinking  the  Deity  to  a  fact,  there  is  yet  the  growing  power 
of  a  religion  which  worships  him  as  an  unmade  Spirit,  in 
spirit  and  in  truth.  How  much  more  rapidly  may  the 
knowledge  and  the  worship  of  the  true  God  spread,  when 
philosophy  herself  shall  become  converted  to,  and  baptized 
in,  a  Gospel  theism ! 

What  then  we  need  for  a  truly  rational  theology  is 
the  conception  and  complete  recognition  of  an  absolutely 
supernatural  Being— a  God  for  the  rational  soul,  and  not 
conditioned  to  the  physical  necessities  of  the  logical  under 
standing.  Such  a  demand  met  is  sufficient  for  theology, 
and  a  valid  answer  to  the  perfectly  logical  Skepticism  and 
Positivism  before  stated.  Such  theology  may  then  be  safe 
ly  laid  as  the  starting-point  for  a  true  rational  cosmology, 
and  in  which  may  be  embodied  a  thoroughly  comprehen 
sive  and  conclusive  philosophy.  In  this  way  only  is  a  valid 
theology  or  philosophy  possible.  In  this  way  nature  may 
be  fairly  presented  as  subjected  to  the  determining  condi 
tions  of  immutable  principle,  and  thus  the  facts  of  nature 
come  to  be  known  in  their  inherent  laws,  and  having  an 
eternal  reason  why  thus  they  are,  and  not  of  some  other 
nature.  So  matter  itself  may  be  expounded;  so  all  the 
laws  of  motion,  of  gravity,  of  fluids,  of  falling  bodies,  of 
magnetism  and  electricity,  of  chemical  and  crystalizing 


54:  INTRODUCTION. 

agencies,  of  the  ensphering  and  revolving  of  suns  and 
planetary  systems,  and  of  the  superinducing  of  vegetable 
and  animal  life,  and  of  rational  intelligence,  may  be  in 
terpreted.  The  full  insight  of  all  nature's  facts,  so  as 
thoroughly  to  read  all  nature's  laws,  will  not  at  first,  nor 
very  soon,  be  attained  ;  but  enough  may  be  presented  to 
give  assurance  that  there  is  a  rational  philosophy  of  nature, 
as  there  is  a  valid  theology  above  nature,  and  that  we  have 
started  on  the  right  path  to  find  and  finish  it. 


RATIONAL   COSMOLOGY. 


GE^EKAL  METHOD. 

THAT  we  may  attain  to  a  rational  idea  of  Creation,  it 
will  be  important  that  we  first  attain  a  rational  idea  of 
a  Creator.  Creation  is  an  origination;  something  made 
where  before  there  was  nothing ;  and  the  universal  Cosmos 
is  inclusive  of  all  that  is  so  made.  The  Creator  himself 
must  then  be  without  origin,  and  inhabiting  eternity.  The 
Cosmos  is  also  a  creation,  beautiful  and  orderly,  fashioned 
according  to  the  determinations  of  immutable  principle, 
and  moves  onward  to  a  proposed  and  purposed  consumma 
tion  ;  the  Creator  must  therefore  be  its  Governor  and  Fin 
isher,  as  'well  as  its  Author.  He  must  originate  all,  and 
guide  all  that  he  originates  to  the  end  proposed. 

ISTow  the  conception  of  such  a  Being  is  neither  readily 
attained  nor  easily  expressed.  An  absolute  Author  and 
Finisher,  who  encompasses  all  things  before  and  after, 
while  he  himself  is  encompassed  by  nothing,  is  necessarily 
incomprehensible  to  a  finite  understanding,  and  can  in  no 
way  be  subjected  to  logical  thought.  No  faculty  can  take 
cognizance  of  such  a  being  but  the  insight  of  reason  alone. 
The  attainment  of  the  idea  involves  all  that  has  been 


56  EATIONAL  COSMOLOGY. 

termed  "the  Philosophy  of  the  Infinite" — the  Problem 
for  finding  the  Absolute — and  which  by  some  of  the  most 
honored  names  has  been  denied  to  be  at  all  accessible  by  the 
human  mind.  Others  have  deemed  the  problem  to  be  of 
practicable  solution,  and  have  made  labored  attempts  to 
accomplish  it,  while,  under  the  delusion  occasioned  by  the 
use  of  the  wrong  intellectual  functions,  they  have  only  pro 
duced  specious  absurdities,  or  run  out  abstractions  to  utter 
negations. 

A  position  can  be  attained,  from  whence  these  false 
methods  of  dealing  with  the  problem  may  be  seen  in  the 
necessities  of  the  case  to  be  futile ;  while  by  employing  the 
appropriate  faculty,  the  attainment  of  the  idea  of  the  Abso 
lute  may  be  completely  successful.  In  a  former  work  of 
Rational  Psychology,  a  more  extended  examination  of  the 
subject  has  been  made  than  is  here  needed,  but  inasmuch 
as  a  clear  idea  of  an  absolute  Creator  and  Governor  is  con 
ditional  for  all  intelligent  approach  to  a  Rational  Cosmolo 
gy,  a  concise  and  independent  mode  for  its  attainment  will 
be  here  presented.  This  will  occupy  the  space  given  to 
the  First  Chapter. 

Having  thus  the  clear  idea  of  the  Creator,  we  shah1  be 
prepared  to  enter  upon  a  detailed  effort  to  attain  a  compre 
hensive  idea  of  the  creation  itself.  If  the  Creator  must 
make  and  guide  the  universal  cosmos  after  the  determina 
tions  of  immutable  principles,  so  that  his  work  may  be 
truly  fact  pervaded  by  principle,  then  must  the  great  plan 
have  already  been  laid  in  the  reason,  as  the  archetypal  idea 
of  the  whole  making  and  finishing.  To  no  finite  reason,  is 
it  to  be  anticipated,  that  this  plan  will  ever  reveal  itself  in 
all  the  clearness  and  completeness  of  the  divine  Ideal ;  yet 


GENERAL   METHOD.  57 

nothing  hinders,  since  such  a  plan  certainly  is,  that  the  hu 
man  reason  may  not  earnestly  and  reverently  apply  its 
powers  to  the  attainment  of  its  grand  outlines,  and  in  the 
teaching  of  eternal  principles  find,  by  a  rational  insight, 
what  and  how  creation  must  have  been,  and  read  her  great 
laws,  not  as  mere  arbitrary  facts,  but  as  the  necessary  result 
of  a  work  rationally  begun  and  wisely  accomplished.  This 
will  fill,  at  much  greater  length,  the  Second  Chapter. 

When  the  Cosmos  is  attained  in  its  plan  and  principle, 
it  will  be  necessary  to  take  the  facts  as  actually  given  in 
experience,  and  study  them  with  the  direct  design  to  find 
their  law  as  plainly  determined  in  the  eternal  principle. 
Facts  teach  nothing  until  they  are  seen  in  their  principles ; 
but  when  the  principle  is  applied  to  the  fact,  and  the  fact  is 
read  and  expounded  in  the  principle,  then  have  we,  and 
only  then,  a  rational  philosophy.  This  will  be  the  work 
for  the  Third  Chapter,  and  which  might  be  prolonged 
indefinitely. 


CHAPTEK   I. 

THE  IDEA  OF  AN  ABSOLUTE  CREATOR  AND  GOVERNOR. 

THE  human  intellect  has  three  different  functions  for 
knowing,  in  each  of  which  the  processes  pursued  and  the 
cognitions  attained  are  different  in  kind  one  from  the 
other,  and  no  supposable  augmentation  of  degrees  can 
bring  them  to  become  identical.  An  imperfect  analysis, 
which  fails  in  the  psychological  recognition  of  these  three 
different  kinds  of  knowing,  among  other  imperfections  and 
errors,  will  inevitably  exclude  from  all  intelligent  approach 
to  the  question  of  the  Absolute,  and  oblige  to  the  denial 
that  any  such  conception  can  be  legitimately  sought  by  a 
finite  mind.  These  three  distinct  functions  of  intellectual 
agency  are  the  Sense,  the  Understanding,  and  the  Reason. 
An  Absolute  may  be  sought  in  them  all ;  the  true  Absolute 
can  be  conceived  and  attained  only  in  one ;  the  nature  of 
the  case  a  priori  determining  that,  to  both  the  functions 
of  the  sense  and  the  discursive  understanding,  all  attempts 
towards  the  conception  of  an  Absolute  involve  an  absurdity, 
and  must  therefore  ever  rest  under  an  utter  impossibility, 
while  the  reason  is  directly  competent  to  state  and  expound 
the  whole  problem. 


THE   ABSOLUTE   AS   THE   INFINITE.  59 

The  intellectual  agency  in  the  sense  performs  its  work 
and  attains  its  end  only  through  a  process  of  conjoining 
the  manifold  into  unity,  and  thus  constructing  the  indefi 
nite  within  limits.  This  agency  in  the  understanding  works 
to  its  end  only  by  connecting  the  separate  and  fleeting  into 
a  permanent,  and  by  this  discursive  process  concluding  in 
judgments.  In  the  reason,  the  intellectual  agency  attains 
its  end  by  an  immediate  insight,  which  detects  the  neces 
sary  principle  that  comprehends  the  universal  within  it,  and 
in  this  compass  of  all  that  has  limit  and  relation  at  once 
attains  and  recognizes  the  Absolute.  If  we  make  these 
processes  of  intellectual  agency  cursorily  to  pass  beneath 
our  inspection,  we  may  clearly  determine  in  the  cases  them 
selves  why  the  first  two  cannot  reach  to  an  Absolute,  and 
how  the  last  can  both  attain  and  expound  it. 

1.  THE  ABSOLUTE  AS  THE  INFINITE. — The  mere  sensa 
tion  in  any  organ  can  be  only  a  content  given  for  a  percep 
tion,  but  cannot  complete  the  perception  in  any  case.  An 
intellectual  action  is  necessary  first  to  distinguish  the  pecu 
liar  sensation  and  thereby  attain  the  quality,  and  then  to 
bring  the  whole  within  limits  and  thereby  determine  the 
quantity.  Quantity  may  have  limits  under  three  general 
modifications,  viz.,  limit  in  space,  and  thus  shape  be  per 
ceived;  limit  in  time,  and  thus  period  be  attained;  and 
limit  in  the  intensity  of  the  sensation,  and  thus  the  amount 
of  the  quality  be  known.  No  matter  how  distinct  the 
quality,  the  quantity  must  also  be  made  definite  or  we  can 
not  have  a  clear  and  complete  perception.  We  may  ob 
serve  the  colors  distinctly  on  the  page  of  a  book,  but  with 
out  an  accurate  defining  in  shape  we  shall  not  know  the 
etters. 


60  THE   IDEA   OF   THE   ABSOLUTE. 

This  intellectual  act  of  defining  may  be  made  a  pure 
ly  subjective  operation  within  the  mind  alone,  and  the 
limits  of  degree  of  intensity  would  then  be  excluded,  as 
having  relevancy  only  to  some  actual  sensation,  leaving 
only  limits  which  determine  the  definite  shape  in  pure  space 
and  the  definite  period  in  pure  time.  But  such  construc 
tions  within  pure  space  or  time  can  be  possible  only  in  one 
method.  The  intellectual  agency  must  go  through  the 
contiguous  points  in  space  and  conjoin  them  into  a  line, 
and  thus  carry  the  line  about  an  area,  or  it  cannot  define 
any  pure  shape ;  and  must  also  go  through  the  consecutive 
instants  in  time,  and  thus  begin  and  terminate  a  duration, 
or  it  cannot  define  any  pure  period.  In  other  words,  the 
intellect  can  possess  no  definite  forms  in  either  space  or 
time  except  as  it  constructs  them  itself  by  its  own  act. 
Pure  space  and  time  will  not  have  any  limits  in  them,  but 
only  as  the  intellectual  agency  makes  them. 

Now  the  Absolute,  in  either  space  or  time,  must  be  a 
whole  which  cannot  be  carried  out  any  further,  and  is  thus 
absolved  from  any  further  modification.  It  is  either  a 
whole  so  small  as  not  to  be  capable  of  further  diminution, 
or  a  whole  so  large  as  not  to  admit  of  further  augmenta 
tion.  From  the  very  necessity  of  the  case,  the  conjoining 
agency  that  constructs  within  limits,  and  thus  determines  a 
completed  whole,  must  itself  describe  the  boundaries  and 
carry  its  own  lines  entirely  around  every  form  that  it  at 
tains.  It  can  have  no  figures  that  it  does  not  itself  describe, 
and  no  periods  that  it  does  not  itself  limit  by  both  begin 
ning  and  ending.  "We  will  then  put  such  a  conjoining 
agency  upon  its  search  for  the  Absolute  in  the  direction  for 
finding  a  whole  so  small  that  it  cannot  be  further  dimin- 


THE   ABSOLUTE   AS   THE   INFINITE.  61 

ishecl.  The  insight  of  the  reason  may  enable  the  intellect 
to  say  of  a  circle,  for  an  example,  that  there  must  be  a 
point  in  it  which  has  no  radii,  but  in  which  all  the  radii  of 
the  circle  terminate ;  or,  that  if  that  circle  with  its  area 
revolve,  there  must  be  a  point  in  it  which  does  not  revolve 
and  which  can  thus  have  no  upper  nor  lower  portion  of  the 
circumference;  and  in  each  case  there  must  be  involved 
the  conclusion  that  here  is  that  which  cannot  be  further 
diminished.  As  a  supposed  absolute,  the  intellectual  agen 
cy  may  set  itself  in  this  direction  to  construct  and  thus  to 
possess  an  absolutely  least  whole.  In  order  to  its  attain 
ment  as  a  whole  it  must  construct  it  within  limits,  and 
must  either  begin  within  and  go  out  to  and  around  its  cir 
cumference,  or  begin  without  and  describe  its  circumfer 
ence  around  its  centre  within,  and  can  never  possess  any 
completed  whole,  however  small,  without  thus  drawing 
lines  about  it.  But  no  such  whole  can  be  the  absolutely 
least,  for  it  must  have  its  upper  and  lower  portions  of  the 
circumference,  and  be  capable  of  revolution,  and  possess 
radii.  The  Absolute,  to  the  insight  of  reason,  in  this  direc 
tion,  is  not  thus  of  any  constructed  whole  as  a  limited,  but 
only  of  a  limit ;  a  point  between  upper  and  lower  portions 
of  a  circumference,  or  a  point  neither  out  of  nor  within  the 
radii,  but  the  limit  where  they  terminate.  The  Absolute, 
thus,  cannot  be  conjoined  as  a  whole  for  the  sense,  but  is 
necessarily  to  it  THE  INFINITE  ;  that  at  which  the  conjoining 
agency  may  begin,  or  that  at  which  it  may  finish,  but  that 
at  which  it  cannot  both  begin  and  finish.  The  intuitive 
Absolute  must  thus  be  indefinable  by  the  only  function 
which  the  sense  can  employ ;  and  the  absolutely  least,  as  a 
whole  so  small  that  it  may  not  become  smaller,  is  to  the 


62  THE   IDEA   OF   THE   ABSOLUTE. 

sense  an  utterly  unattainable  cognition.  Its  smallest  must 
be  wholly  constructed  within  limits,  and  ever  that  which  is 
limited  the  limit  can  divide.  The  same  is  true  of  period  as 
of  place,  and  thus  the  attainment  of  a  whole  as  absolutely 
the  smallest  is  necessarily  impracticable. 

We  will  again  put  this  conjoining  agency  upon  its 
search  for  the  Absolute  in  the  direction  of  attaining  a  whole 
so  large  that  it  cannot  be  augmented.  The  comprehending 
reason  may  say  of  space,  that  there  must  be  a  whole  of  im 
mensity  which  is  not  any  part  of  itself;  and  also  may  say 
of  time,  that  there  must  be  a  whole  of  eternity  which  can 
not  be  any  of  its  parts ;  and  the  intellectual  agency  may  go 
forth  to  construct  this  absolutely  greatest  whole.  As  before 
in  diminution,  so  here  in  augmentation,  the  conjoining  in 
tellect  can  have  no  whole  which  it  has  not  completely  sur 
rounded  by  the  line  that  itself  carries,  and  thus  can  know 
no  whole  of  space  without  completely  limiting  all  space, 
and  can  know  no  whole  of  time  without  completely  bound 
ing  eternity.  But  the  greatest  definite  place  is  not  yet  all 
space,  and  the  greatest  definite  period  is  not  yet  all  time, 
and  thus  at  the  furthest  augmentation  there  is  more  beyond, 
and  however  much  may  have  been  defined,  yet  of  both  im 
mensity  and  eternity  still  we  must  say,  that  each  is  THE 
INFINITE  ;  that  which  it  is  impracticable  to  finish. 

As  now,  the  only  fields  in  which  a  conjoining  intellectual 
agency  can  work  are  those  of  space  and  time,  and  as  in 
neither  can  an  absolutely  least  nor  an  absolutely  largest  be 
attained,  it  is  quite  manifest,  from  the  nature  of  the  case, 
that  in  no  way  to  the  sense  can  the  Absolute  become  known. 
The  forecasting  reason  postulates  both  the  absolutely  least 
and  largest,  but  when  the  constructing  sense  sets  out  to 


THE   ABSOLUTE   AS   THE   UNCONDITIONED.  63 

execute  the  work,  it  ever  finds  itself  with  the  infinite  be 
yond,  and  never  that  it  is  at  the  Absolute.  There  is  an 
intrinsic  antinomy  in  the  human  mind ;  a  law  that  demands 
an  Absolute,  and  a  law  that  forbids  it  should  be  found ;  and 
till  an  accurate  analysis  has  discriminated  and  thus  recon 
ciled  the  different  functions  of  knowing,  the  mind  is  really 
a  riddle  or  an  apparent  absurdity  to  itself.  To  the  sense 
there  can  never  be  an  absolute  whole,  either  the  least  or 
the  largest ;  there  still  ever  remains  to  it  only  the  Infinite. 

2.  THE  ABSOLUTE  AS  THE  UNCONDITIONED. — When  we 
have  put  the  quality  completely  within  limits,  and  thereby 
made  it  to  stand  out  in  consciousness  as  a  definite  whole, 
the  intellectual  function  in  conjoining  or  constructing  has 
done  all  its  work,  and  the  product  is  a  perception,  or  a 
phenomenon  taken  through  sense.  The  definite  qualities 
are  thus  known,  but  these  qualities  are  so  known  only  as 
separate  and  fleeting  appearances.  The  sense  can  affirm 
what  thus  appears,  but  cannot  at  all  think  the  appearing 
separate  qualities  to  be  the  attributes  of  some  common  sub 
ject.  The  sense  can  give  definitely  all  the  qualities  which 
belong  to  the  rose,  but  in  the  sense  they  are  separate  quali 
ties  only,  and  no  subject,  as  the  rose,  appears  in  the  sense 
at  all,  nor  any  act  which  puts  the  qualities  together  into  the 
subject  rose  is  at  all  put  forth  by  any  intellectual  agency  in 
the  sense.  There  must  here  be  introduced  altogether 
another  kind  of  agency  than  that  which  conjoins  within 
limits.  We  need  for  this  the  connecting  agency  of  the 
understanding,  and  which  is  explained  in  the  following 
manner : 

The  sense  can  take  no  cognizance  of  a  substance,  but 
Only  of  the  qualities.  The  qualities  appear,  the  substance 


64:  THE   IDEA   OF   THE   ABSOLUTE. 

does  not  appear.  I  think  that  some  existing  thing  has  im 
pressed  the  organ  of  sense,  and  thereby  has  given  a  sensa 
tion  which  I  have  discriminated  and  defined,  and  in  my 
thought,  I  refer  this  distinct  and  definite  appearance  to  that 
thing  as  its  subject ;  and  then  in  as  many  ways  and  through 
as  many  organs  as  that  thing  is  thought  to  give  distinct  and 
definite  phenomena,  I  successively  conclude  these  phenome 
na  to  belong  to  it,  and  thus  judge  discursively  the  quali 
ties  to  be  predicated  of  one  common  subject ;  or,  which  is 
the  same  thing,  the  qualities  of  one  common  substance. 
The  sense  gave  the  qualities  distinctly  and  definitely,  and 
then  quite  another  intellectual  function  intervenes,  and, 
taking  each  quality  discursively  through  the  same  sub 
stance  as  given  in  thought,  connects  them  all  in  it  by  judg 
ing  them  all  to  inhere  there  together.  The  qualities  are 
thus  no  longer  separate,  but  the  attributes  of  that  one 
substance,  and  these  qualities  thus  connected  in  that  one 
substance,  are  known  henceforth  as  one  thing.  By  thus 
thinking  in  judgments  we  come  to  know  that  the  sense 
phenomena  have  their  common  ground  in  the  one  sub 
stance  we  have  thought  for  them,  and  the  intellectual  func 
tion,  by  which  we  have  been  enabled  to  connect  these 
qualities  into  one  thing  by  making  this  substance  to  stand 
under  them,  we  term  the  understanding.  From  the  nature 
of  the  case,  it  is  thus  impossible  that  an  understanding 
should  work  in  connecting  qualities  into  things,  except  as 
the  notion  of  substance  is  given  to  it ;  the  moment  the 
thought  of  the  substance  is  lost,  the  very  medium  of  all 
possible  connection  of  the  qualities  would  be  gone. 

Still  further,  the  qualities  as  given  in  the  sense  often 
vary  in  the  same  ground,  and  the  one  thing  changes  its  ap- 


THE   ABSOLUTE   AS   THE   UNCONDITIONED.  65 

pearance.  The  hardness  and  brittleness,  &c.,  of  the  ice 
give  place  to  the  fluidity  and  limpidness,  &c.,  of  the  water. 
We  think  these  last  qualities  as  still  in  the  same  substance, 
and  thus  know  both  the  ice  and  the  water  to  be  yet  one 
thing,  and  yet  we  think  that  one  substance  to  have  been  so 
modified  by  the  presence  of  some  other  substance,  that  the 
old  qualities  were  made  to  pass  away,  and  other  qualities  as 
new  events  to  come  out  from  the  same  source.  The  passing 
away  of  one  and  the  coming  of  another  event  is  given  in 
the  sense  ;  the  sequences  appear ;  but  the  modifying  effi 
ciency  of  the  one  substance  upon  the  other  does  not 
appear.  This  is  thought  only,  and  the  discursive  process 
again  brings  the  successive  events  into  connection  through 
these  modifying  combinations  of  substances,  and  knows 
the  modifying  efficiency  as  cause  and  the  modified  event  as 
effect,  and  thus  judges  the  sequences  to  be  a  linked  and 
orderly  series.  The  understanding,  again,  must  have  this 
notion  of  cause,  or  from  the  necessity  of  the  case  the  only 
medium  for  connecting  the  sequences  into  a  linked  series 
would  be  lost.  All  qualities  are  thus  judged  as  inhering  in 
some  substance,  and  all  events  as  adhering  to  some  cause, 
and  thus  the  separate  qualities  of  the  sense  and  their 
changes  are  bound  in  connection  as  one  common  nature  of 
things,  and  all  constitute  but  one  world  or  universe. 

It  is  now  manifest,  that  in  this  field  of  the  understand 
ing,  as  before  in  the  field  of  the  sense,  the  occasion  is  given 
for  seeking  after  the  Absolute,  though  in  quite  a  different 
form.  Not  the  Absolute  in  reference  to  any  limited  and 
completed  whole,  whether  least  or  largest,  but  the  Abso 
lute  as  the  substance  which  has  nothing  deeper,  or  the 
cause  which  has  nothing  higher.  We  thus  put  this  con- 


66  THE  IDEA  OF  THE  ABSOLUTE. 

necting  agency  upon  the  search  for  the  Absolute,  in  the  first 
place,  in  the  direction  of  the  absolutely  deepest  substance. 
The  reason  may  intuitively  say  that  some  substance 
must  be  the  ultimate  ground  on  which  all  substances  rest, 
and  the  discursive  understanding  may  be  put  upon  the  start 
actually  to  attain  to  it.  These  qualities  have  been  judged 
to  inhere  in  a  common  substance,  but  on  what  does  this 
substance  rest  ?  It  cannot  be  self-supported,  for  from  the 
necessity  of  the  case  a  connecting  understanding  must  have 
the  medium  through  which  the  discursive  connections  are 
to  run,  and  so  soon  as  you  leave  the  substance  to  itself  it 
hangs  as  helplessly  over  a  void  as  would  a  quality  without 
a  substance.  The  understanding  must,  therefore,  think 
this  substance  as  some  modification  of  a  deeper  substance, 
and  if  it  would  reach  the  Absolute  by  thinking  in  discursive 
judgments,  it  dooms  itself  to  an  endless  descent  where 
each  dropping  footstep  can  only  fall  upon  a  stair  that  must 
be  conditioned  upon  another  yet  beneath  it.  To  attempt 
the  conception  of  a  substance  originated,  or  of  a  substance 
annihilated,  is  the  absurdity  of  connecting  without  a  medi 
um  ;  of  thinking  a  substance  that  was  itself  unsubstantial, 
or  of  thinking  away  a  substance  that  yet  should  leave  all 
above  it  to  be  substantial.  It  would  cut  off  the  thought 
from  all  possibility  of  connection,  and  the  discursive  under 
standing  can  look  at  this  only  in  horror  and  helplessness. 
An  absolute  substance  is  thus  manifestly  unattainable,  and 
could  be  conceived  only  as  an  arbitrary  stopping  upon  some 
one  as  an  ultimate,  but  which  yet,  by  the  very  necessity  of 
the  thinking  function  that  demanded  this  for  all  above,  de 
mands  for  this  yet  also  another  beneath.  An  absolute  sub 
stance  would  be  THE  UNCONDITIONED  ;  the  substance  that 


THE   ABSOLUTE   AS   THE   UNCONDITIONED.  67 

stood  under  all  others  with  no  substance  under  it;  but 
such  conception  of  the  unconditioned  could  not  also  be  a 
conception  of  the  substantial.  The  absolute  substance  is 
necessarily  to  the  understanding  an  absurdity ;  a  contradic 
tion  to  the  necessity  of  thought ;  and  can  therefore  never 
become  a  cognition  to  the  discursive  intellect.  The  true 
Absolute  is  as  remote  here  from  an  unconditioned  substance, 
as  before  in  the  sense  from  the  infinite  in  space. 

In  another  direction,  the  discursive  intellect  may  be  put 
upon  the  search  for  the  Absolute  cause.  The  reason  may 
affirm  that  there  must  be  a  cause  which  is  the  source  of  all 
causes,  and  as  thus  itself  uncaused  is  an  absolute  cause,  and 
the  understanding  sent  on  the  way  after  it.  But,  again, 
from  the  necessity  of  a  discursive  process,  the  medium  of 
connection  must  be  maintained,  and  the  attempt  to  stand 
on  any  cause  arbitrarily  assumed  to  be  the  ultimate  in  the 
regressus,  or  the  first  in  the  outgoing  of  the  following 
series,  is  the  putting  yourself  with  one  foot  on  a  retreating 
stair  while  the  other  vainly  seeks  to  plant  itself  upon  va 
cancy.  The  Absolute  cause  is  for  the  understanding  an 
unconditioned  cause ;  a  source  of  all  causes  with  no  con 
dition  above  itself  what  shall  come  out  of  itself ;  and  is  thus 
the  absurdity  of  a  source  for  all  efficiency  with  nothing  to 
make  itself  effective.  The  true  Absolute  is  as  diverse  from 
an  unconditioned  cause  here  in  the  understanding,  as  it 
was  before  in  the  sense  from  the  Infinite  in  time. 

There  is  here  as  manifest  an  antinomy  in  the  human 
intellect  as  before  in  the  sense.  The  reason  forecasts  and 
postulates  a  substance  that  has  no  substance  beneath  it, 
and  a  cause  that  has  no  cause  above  it,  and  yet  the  very 
function  of  the  discursive  understanding:  forbids  that  such 


68  THE   IDEA   OF   THE   ABSOLUTE. 

an  Absolute  should  be  cognized  or  even  conceived.  There 
is  an  insoluble  paradox  from  the  very  working  of  the  hu 
man  intellect,  except  as  in  our  psychological  analysis  we 
have  found  that  the  function  demanding  and  the  function 
forbidding  are  entirely  distinct  in  kind,  and  that  each  is 
to  be  held  responsible  only  for  its  own  cognitions  in  its  own 
processes. 

3.  THE  ABSOLUTE  AS  IN  THE  UNDEESTANDING  ITSELF. — 
There  is  also  another  method  of  attaining  to  an  Absolute, 
which  takes  the  understanding  itself,  and  transcending  the 
consciousness,  in  which  is  all  our  ordinary  experience, 
carries  out  an  analysis  of  the  understanding,  as  the  function 
of  judgment,  to  its  constituent  elements,  and  finds  an  Ab 
solute  in  the  understanding  itself.  This  is  still  a  use  of  the 
discursive  faculty,  and  only  turning  its  action  upon  the 
constitutive  elements  of  its  own  being  instead,  as  before, 
upon  either  space  and  time  in  the  sense,  or  upon  the  no 
tions  of  substance  and  cause  in  the  thought,  and  instead  of 
an  absolute  whole  so  small  as  not  to  be  diminished  or  so 
large  as  not  to  be  increased,  or  an  absolute  substance  or 
absolute  cause,  it  assumes  to  find  an  Absolute  in  the  under 
standing  itself. 

Beginning  in  Kant  and  passing  through  the  specula 
tions  of  Fichte  and  Schelling  to  Hegel,  we  have  the  fol 
lowing  modifications  of  this  method  of  finding  the  Absolute 
in  the  understanding  itself.  The  human  understanding  is 
taken  as  the  faculty  for  thinking  in  judgments,  and  is  origi 
nally  constituted  to  possess  certain  primitive  conceptions 
which  become  the  general  forms  for  all  varieties  of  logical 
judgments,  and  which  are  thus  termed  the  categories  of  the 
pure  understanding.  These  primitive  forms,  with  which 


THE   ABSOLUTE   AS    IN   THE    UNDERSTANDING.  69 

our  human  understanding  is  constitutionally  endowed,  de 
termine  and  limit  our  whole  sphere  of  knowing,  and  when 
analytically  formed  they  enable  the  transcendental  philoso 
pher  to  say  beforehand,  from  the  very  constitution  of  the 
faculty  of  judging,  what  is  the  entire  capacity  of  man  for 
attaining  cognitions.  He  can  know  in  all  the  forms  pro 
vided  for  him  in  these  primitive  conceptions,  and  can  con 
clude  in  no  judgments  which  do  not  range  themselves 
under  some  one  of  these  categories. 

Above  the  general  forms  for  concluding  in  judgments 
through  logical  syllogisms,  there  is  also  a  constitutional  pro 
vision  for  directing  the  ascent  from  the  major  premiss  of 
one  syllogism  to  the  conclusion  of  another  on  which  it  has 
depended.  The  major  premiss  of  any  logical  syllogism 
must  be  an  assumption,  except  as  it  has  been  deduced  in 
the  conclusion  of  a  pro-syllogism ;  and  to  prompt  and 
direct  the  mind  along  this  ascending  way  up  the  ladder  of 
syllogisms,  there  is  the  higher  primitive  conception  of  the 
Infinite,  or  the  Unconditioned,  constitutionally  given  to 
man,  and  which,  as  the  subjective  Idea  of  the  Absolute, 
regulates  this  logical  regressus  in  the  same  manner  as  if  a 
real  ultimate  might  at  length  be  reached,  beyond  which 
there  would  be  no  occasion  for  a  pro-syllogism.  As  the 
primitive  conceptions  for  single  syllogisms  were  termed 
categories  of  the  pure  understanding,  so  the  primitive  con 
ceptions  in  the  various  processes  of  rising  to  the  Infinite, 
the  Unconditioned,  and  the  Absolute,  were  termed  the 
categories  of  the  pure  reason. 

The  understanding  and  the  reason  are  thus  only  differ 
ent  varieties  of  the  same  logical  function  for  concluding  in 
judgments,  one  regulating  its  process  by  given  primitive 


TO  THE   IDEA   OF   THE   ABSOLUTE. 

conceptions  in  the  simple  syllogism,  and  the  other  regu 
lating  its  process  by  a  higher  grade  of  primitive  conceptions 
in  the  ascending  march  through  indefinite  pro-syllogisms. 
The  reason  is  still  discursive,  and  not  at  all  the  immediate 
insight  of  the  Platonic  Reason.  The  Absolute  is  here  a 
primitive  conception ;  a  regulative  form  of  thought  in  the 
subjective  understanding  ;  and  thus  an  ideal  Absolute  only. 
Whether  there  be  a  veritable  ultimate  or  not  can  never  be 
determined  by  the  human  mind,  for  it  can  only  regulate  its 
search  for  it  by  this  subjective  ideal  Absolute,  and  can 
never  reach  it.  The  true  Absolute  is  wholly  problematical ; 
it  can  neither  be  proved  nor  disproved  ;  the  ideal  Absolute 
constitutionally  given  to  the  human  mind  is  all  that  can  be 
cognized  by  man.  We  are  so  made  that  we  think  an  Ab 
solute,  and  thus  regulate  our  ascent  toward  it ;  but  w^e 
can  never  attain  to  it  and  plant  our  logical  footsteps 
upon  it. 

This  Kantean  Idea  of  the  Absolute  in  the  Understanding 
became  subsequently  transposed  for  an  Absolute  Under 
standing  itself.  That  agency,  which  works  out  -in  con 
sciousness  the  ego  or  the  self  that  we  know,  must  be  back 
of  the  ego  or  self  which  is  known,  and  cannot  itself  be 
brought  up  into  the  light  of  consciousness.  The  self  which 
we  come  to  know  is  the  intellectual  product  of  a  deeper 
self  which  we  cannot  make  to  appear.  This  deeper  self 
works  up  into  consciousness  a  self  which  is  then  known  as 
subject,  and  also  that  which  is  distinct  from  self,  a  not-self, 
which  is  then  known  as  object,  and  thus  our  whole  ex 
perience  of  subject  and  object  has  a  deeper  source  abso 
lutely  independent  of  all  conscious  experience.  This  under 
lying  self  which  develops  itself  into  the  conscious  self,  and 


THE   ABSOLUTE   AS    IN   THE   UNDEKST 

also  into  the  conscious  not-self,  i.  e.,  into  both 
and  the  objective,  is  also  altogether  the  source  for  each  per 
sonal  self  in  its  separate  consciousness,  and  therefore  out  of 
it  come,  and  in  it  are  identified,  all  separate  self-conscious 
nesses,  all  subjective,  and  all  objective  experiences.  One 
absolute  self  is  the  germ  that  evolves  itself  into  distinct 
personalities,  into  conscious  subjective  experience,  and  into 
the  conscious  experience  of  all  that  is  objective ;  and  hence 
the  whole  intellectual  life  of  humanity  is  but  an  outgrowth 
from  an  Absolute,  which  is  back  of,  and  beyond  all  possi 
bility  of  appearing  in,  consciousness,  and  which  can  be 
known  in  no  way  but  by  "  an  Intellectual  Intuition,"  which 
penetrates  beneath  the  subjective  consciousness  and  beholds 
it  face  to  face.  This  Absolute  Ego  is  taken  to  be  a  real, 
acting,  self-evolving  being ;  the  identification  in  himself  of 
all  that  comes  to  have  existence ;  and  all  existence  is,  in 
fact,  only  the  stating  or  positing  of  his  perpetual  self-evolu 
tion.  An  Absolute  real  understanding  thinks  out  into  sub 
jective  and  objective  existence  all  that  is  known. 

Ultimately,  this  Absolute  real  being,  thinking  itself  out 
into  personality,  subjective  consciousness,  and  objective  ex 
perience,  becomes  thoroughly  dissolved  into  an  utter  ab 
straction,  and  there  is  no  longer  a  self,  or  ego,  as  a  veritable 
understanding,  but  solely  a  thinking  process  /  not  any  sub 
strate  agent,  but  merely  a  living  movement ;  and  this  pure 
thinking  movement  is  assumed  as  the  Absolute,  and  by  a 
law  of  perpetual  dialectics,  or  reciprocal  counter-negations, 
works  out  the  universe  of  unconscious  matter  and  self- 
conscious  mind.  The  Absolute  thought-movement,  begin 
ning  in  abstract  being,  which  as  entirely  abstract  has  no 
distinction,  and  is  thus  identical  with  naught  first  denies  or 


72  THE   IDEA   OF   THE   ABSOLUTE. 

negates  that  it  is  naught,  and  then  by  a  counter-negation 
denies  that  naught  is  being,  and  thus  posits  being  as  no 
longer  abstract  being,  but  as  being  excluded  by  naught ; 
and  thus  in  this  diremptive,  or  counter-negative  movement, 
abstract  being  has  come  to  stand  out  with  naught  ovei 
against  it,  and  each  mutually  excluding  the  other,  and  is 
thus  the  thought  of  existence.  But  the  thought-movement 
cannot  rest  in  existence ;  it  goes  out  from  existence  and 
negates  any  limit,  and  thus  thinks  the  Infinite,  and  return 
ing  to  existence  it  again  negates  the  Infinite  as  limited  in 
existence,  and  thus  thinks  the  Finite ;  and  in  this  counter- 
negation  of  the  Infinite  and  Finite,  existence  has  become 
in  the  thought  not  merely  a  being  as  standing  out  from 
nothing,  but  being  as  every  way  limiting  itself,  and  is  thus 
being  per  se.  Thus  the  living  movement  is  traced  through 
a  perpetual  series  of  counter-negations,  each  one  conveying 
the  thought  further  on  and  positing  a  new  cognition,  till 
the  thought-process  has  given  in  its  course  all  of  nature, 
educated  itself  to  self-consciousness,  to  universal  intelli 
gence,  and  at  length  to  divine  Omniscience.  Thus  Kant's 
Absolute  is  a  subjective  regulative  thought ;  Schelling's 
Absolute  is  the  infinite  understanding  in  its  original  germ ; 
and  Hegel's  Absolute  is  an  abstract  thought-movement 
which  has  not  yet  posited  any  thought,  but  in  its  endless 
ongoing  is  at  length  to  state  existence,  nature,  personality, 
humanity  and  developed  Deity,  and  come  at  length  to 
know  itself  as  the  subject  of  whatever  is,  and  the  object  of 
whatever  itself  knows. 

Of  this  whole  transcendental  method  for  finding  an  Ab 
solute,  we  can  say,  from  the  necessity  of  the  case,  it  must 
be  unsuccessful.  It  uses  only  a  discursive  faculty  and  em- 


THE   ABSOLUTE   AS    IN   THE   UNDERSTANDING.  73 

ploys  only  the  processes  of  analysis  and  abstraction.  It 
begins  in  experience,  and  analyzes  and  abstracts  till  it  as 
sumes  to  find  that  in  which  experience  is  conditioned.  But 
this  root  and  source  for  all  experience  is  still  a  constituted 
being ;  a  something  given  with  its  own  necessitated  law  of 
action  imposed  upon  it ;  and  even  when  the  abstraction  has 
gone  beyond  all  substrate  being,  and  retained  only  a  move 
ment  in  which  there  is  nothing  moving,  it  still  must  come 
under  an  intestine  necessity,  and  work  according  to  a  con 
stituted  nature,  and  subject  itself  to  conditions  it  already 
finds  within  it,  and  above  which  it  can  never  exalt  itself, 
and  from  which  it  can  never  deliver  itself.  It  transcends 
experience,  not  by  going  back  to  eternal  principle  which 
must  determine  all  experience,  but  simply  by  going  back 
of  human  consciousness  and  finding  the  constitutional  ele 
ments  which  regulate  human  experience  in  consciousness, 
and  thus  determining  what  our  human  understanding  can 
know,  simply  because  it  finds  that  we  are  made  with  func 
tions  that  primitively  capacitate  us  to  know  thus,  and  not 
otherwise. 

Not  that  which  is  above  fact  and  nature,  but  that  only 
which  is  above  human  consciousness  is  sought,  that  in  the 
end  it  may  attain  a  constituted  principium,  a  created 
source  for  all  that  conscious  experience  has  given.  This 
the  discursive  understanding  can  very  well  accomplish,  for  it 
is  only  undoing  its  own  work  and  raveling  out  the  thread 
that  it  has  knit.  Having  put  together  by  a  connective  pro 
cess  in  judging,  it  may  readily  unweave  its  own  web,  and 
go  back  in  abstraction  towards  nihility,  until  nothing  be  left 
but  the  mere  semblance  of  any  content  in  the  thought,  and 
then  by  terming  this  highest  abstract  element  the  Abso- 


74:  THE   IDEA   OF   THE   ABSOLUTE. 

lute,  it  may  readily  begin  with  it  and  retrace  its  old  pro 
cess  of  putting  things  together,  and  in  this  assume  that  the 
ideal  work  is  creation,  and  the  empty  product  a  universe. 
But  from  the  nature  of  the  process,  if  it  stop  short  of  ut 
ter  annihilation,  the  highest  abstraction  must  be  still  some 
thing  that  the  intellect  had  when  it  began  the  analysis,  and 
can  be  no  more  an  Absolute  above  and  beyond  nature  than 
was  the  whole  furniture  of  its  thought  when  it  began  the 
abstraction.  By  analyzing  and  abstracting  from  the  con 
ditioned  we  are  making  no  progress  toward  an  uncon 
ditioned,  and  an  endless  analysis  and  abstraction  of  the 
understanding  can  never  find  an  Absolute. 

We  may  readily  cheat  ourselves  by  calling  this  abstract 
thought-process  the  world-spirit,  as  if  it  possessed  a  valid 
being,  and  then  call  the  empty  thinking  the  development 
of  this  world-spirit,  and  delude  ourselves  as  if  we  had  built 
over  in  our  thought  that  which  the  world-spirit  had  actual 
ly  posited  and  stated  in  its  ongoing  ;  and  yet  even  this  de 
lusive  creator  and  creation  would  be  a  thoroughly  finite  and 
conditioned  conception.  This  assumed  world-spirit  can 
only  act  in  one  way,  and  go  out  in  one  process,  and  take 
one  step  in  its  perpetual  counter-negations  at  a  time,  and 
all  this  with  no  final  end  to  be  reached,  and  no  free  purpose 
to  be  attained,  and  no  approving  inward  consciousness  to 
cheer  and  reward  it.  All  is  thoroughly  within  the  con*- 
ditioned  understanding,  and  is  but  nature  still,  and  grows 
up  under  as  rigid  a  necessity  as  the  tides  flow  or  the  planets 
roll.  It  seeks  to  transcend  sustained  substance  and  con 
ditioned  cause,  but  this  abstract  Absolute  is  still  grounded 
in  the  substantial  and  bound  within  the  causal,  and  utterly 
helpless  without  a  something  on  which  to  stand,  and  a  sup 
plied  efficiency  from  whence  to  draw. 


THE   ABSOLUTE   AS   IN   THE   UNDEKSTANDING.  75 

All  philosophy  of  nature  is  hopeless  and  helpless  with 
out  the  full  recognition  of  the  absolutely  supernatural,  for 
all  exposition  of  nature  in  either  its  origin  or  its  end,  must 
be  found  in  that  only  which  is  above  nature.  But  every 
attempt  to  reach  the  supernatural  and  cognize  the  Abso 
lute  by  any  work  of  the  discursive  understanding,  is  vain. 
We  may  employ  it  upon  the  pure  sense  in  the  conjoining 
of  space  and  time,  but  all  possible  constructions  here  will 
still  leave  the  Infinite  unconstructed,  and  can  therefore 
never  find  an  Absolute.  We  may  employ  it  upon  its  own 
notions  of  substance  and  cause,  but  all  possible  attempts  to 
descend  to  an  unsustained  substance,  or  ascend  to  an  un- 
supplied  cause,  can  never  stop  in  any  one  substance  or  cause 
which  is  not  conditioned  already  in  its  own  being,  and  thus 
leaving  the  unconditioned  wholly  beyond  its  furthest  march, 
and  of  course  the  Absolute  yet  unattained.  Or,  we  may 
lastly  set  the  understanding  to  work  upon  its  own  func 
tions,  and  analyze  itself  up  to  the  primitive  elements  which 
enter  into  its  original  constitution,  and  attain  its  most  sub 
limated  transcendental  abstractions ;  but  we  can  never  take 
that  in  the  end  which  was  not  also  given  to  us  at  the  be 
ginning,  and  from  the  very  fact  that  it  was  originally  com 
prehended  within  the  understanding,  it  must  be  impossible 
that  it  should  ever  become  the  compass  for  comprehending 
the  understanding  itself.  It  must  ever  be  the  included 
and  can  never  become  the  absolutely  conclusive.  If,  then, 
we  have  not  the  endowment  of  some  distinct  and  superior 
function  of  knowing  than  the  discursive  understanding, 
we  are  from  the  nature  of  the  case  shut  out  from  all  en 
trance  upon  the  field  where  lie  the  problems  of  the  Abso 
lute.  We  are  doomed  to  wander  up  and  down  through 


76  THE   IDEA   OF   THE   ABSOLUTE. 

the  connections  of  nature,  and  can  neither  know  nor  con 
ceive  any  thing  of  the  supernatural.  It  is  certainly  very 
much  gained  in  the  saving  of  severe  but  fruitless  labor,  to 
know  that  no  conjoining  and  no  connecting  intellectual 
agency  can  be  at  all  used  in  the  philosophy  of  the  Absolute. 
It  is  more  gained,  to  know  that  we  do  not  need  any  such 
aid.  Neither  Absolute  time  nor  space,  neither  Absolute 
substance  nor  cause,  neither  a  transcendental  regulative 
Ideal  Absolute,  nor  an  Absolute  thought-process,  could 
bring  us  to  the  being  we  want. 

4.  THE  ABSOLUTE  AS  GIVEN  ix  THE  REASON. — We  cease, 
then,  altogether  from  the  use  of  the  discursive  understand 
ing  in  this  work  of  attaining  the  Idea  of  the  Absolute,  and 
attempt  nothing  through  completed  constructions  in  space 
and  time,  nor  connected  judgments  in  substances  and 
causes,  nor  analyses  and  abstractions  of  the  function  of 
judgment  itself.  We  have  a  position  from  which  we  see 
that  all  such  labor  must  be  fruitless,  and  we  turn  to  the 
use  of  the  reason  solely;  the  faculty  for  direct  and  im 
mediate  insight.  That  we  have  such  a  faculty,  distinctive 
in  kind,  and  giving  to  us  all  our  prerogatives  of  rationality, 
personality,  and  free  and  responsible  originality,  is  suffi 
ciently  clear  in  the  consciousness  of  its  own  working.  In 
pure  diagrams  we  see  universal  truths  without  any  process 
of  logical  deductions,  as  that  any  three  points  in  space  must 
be  in  one  and  the  same  plane ;  and  that  any  two  sides  of  a 
triangle  must  together  be  greater  than  a  third  side.  In 
pure  physics,  we  see  that  action  and  reaction  must  be 
opposite  and  equal ;  and  that  compound  forces  must  give 
their  conjunct  direction  to  motion.  In  pure  forms  we  can 
see  spiritual  sentiment,  and  thus  have  an  ultimate  standard 


THE  ABSOLUTE  AS  IN  THE  KEASON.         77 

of  taste  in  the  beautiful ;  and  in  spirit  itself  we  can  see  an 
intrinsic  excellency  that  demands  for  itself  that  it  should 
be  end,  and  not  means  to  an  end,  and  thus  have  an  ulti 
mate  standard  of  right  in  the  good.  We  will  apply  this 
rational  insight  to  a  series  of  grounds,  in  which  may  be 
detected  the  working  of  other  than  material  forces ;  and 
also  to  the  distinctions  in  an  ascending  spiritual  spontaneity 
up  to  the  supernatural ;  and  in  the  supernatural  we  will  de 
tect  also  the  point  which  separates  the  conditioned  from  the 
unconditioned,  and  come  directly  upon  the  Absolute  and 
Divine. 

Let  it  be  here  remarked  that  the  Absolute  we  seek  is 
not  excluded  from  all  relations  and  conditions.  That  which 
should  be  utterly  without  relations  could  not  be  expressed, 
and  that  which  should  be  utterly  without  conditions  could 
not  be  explained.  It  is  only  necessary  that  the  relations 
and  conditions  should  be  wholly  subjective,  self-directed, 
and  self-sustained,  and  bringing  with  them  no  dependence 
upon  nor  amenability  to  any  outer  being.  Not  without 
self-relations  and  self-conditions,  but  wholly  absolved  from 
all  dependent  relationship  and  subjected  conditioning  to 
any  other.  We  proceed  then  on  our  course  to  the  com 
plete  attainment  of  such  Idea  of  the  Absolute. 

A  grain  of  wheat  may  be  wrapped  up  in  the  same  cere 
ments  together  with  an  Egyptian  mummy.  Thousands  of 
years  pass  away,  and  not  a  moment  in  the  long  period  has 
been  without  action  neither  in  the  living  wheat  nor  the  dead 
mummy.  But  to  the  insight  of  reason,  a  broad  distinction 
is  seen  between  these  perpetuated  activities.  In  the  dead 
all  the  agency  has  been  from  without,  and  coming  upon 
the  subject  that  has  been  modified  and  changed  by  it; 


78  THE   IDEA   OF   THE   ABSOLUTE. 

while  in  the  living  the  agency  has  been  its  own,  springing 
up  ever  fresh  within  it,  and  resisting  the  outer  agencies 
that  would  corrupt  and  dissolve  it.  The  one  has  been  the 
mechanical  attrition  of  material  forces,  the  other  has  been 
the  spontaneous  spring  of  a  living  energy.  We  seize  upon 
this  vital  energizing,  as  reason  gives  it  to  us,  and  reserve 
it  for  our  purpose  in  our  future  progress. 

This  living  energy  can  only  act  according  to  conditions 
imposed  upon  it.  It  cannot  germinate  and  propagate  itself 
in  new  grains  without  the  air,  the  earth,  the  sunshine,  and 
the  moisture.  It  is  a  power  put  into  matter,  and  which 
has  the  capability  to  control  and  use  matter,  but  only  ac 
cording  to  conditions  imposed  upon  it,  and  when  these 
conditions  are  supplied  it  is  still  conditioned  within  itself, 
and  must  grow  out  after  its  own  controlling  law,  "  first  the 
blade,  then  the  ear,  afterwards  the  full  corn  in  the  ear," 
and  this  full  corn  in  the  ear  only  the  "  seed  after  its  kind." 
With  all  the  spontaneity  of  life,  the  vegetable  is  still  bound 
in  matter,  and  even  its  life  is  conditioned  by  an  imposed 
law  which  it  can  by  no  means  transcend;  and  thus  its 
whole  being  is  in  and  of  nature  only. 

The  ox  that  treads  out  and  eats  the  grain  has  all  this 
living  energy,  with  the  very  remarkable  addition  that  it 
can  feel  itself  and  give  back  sensation  for  sensation. 
Through  the  power  of  sensation  it  can  be  impelled  to 
locomotion,  direct  itself  in  the  selection  of  its  food,  and 
guide  its  experience  by  rules  of  prudence.  The  insight  of 
reason  finds  at  once  in  this  a  higher  grade  of  spontaneous 
energizing,  and  knows  that  here  is  an  approach  towards 
self-direction.  The  animal  can  condition  itself  by  its  own 
sensations.  We  take  then  this  higher  idea  of  spontaneity 


THE  ABSOLUTE  AS  IN  THE  SEASON.         79 

which  reason  has  gained  in  animal  life  and  hold  it  for  our 
purpose. 

But  this  animal  life  and  sensation  is  also  in  matter,  and 
subjected  to  all  the  conditions  of  matter.  Its  very  sentient 
life,  which  distinguishes  it  from  the  vegetable,  is  active 
only  through  matter  and  towards  matter.  It  uses  and 
seeks  the  material  only,  so  that  if  we  speak  here  at  all  of 
spiritual  being,  it  is  of  "  the  spirit  of  a  beast  which  goeth 
downward."  Its  feelings  are  all  determined  for  it  in  the 
laws  imposed  upon  it ;  and  the  sentient  life  can  neither  as 
sume  nor  propagate  other  laws  of  energizing  than  those 
of  its  own  kind.  The  animal  is  therefore  yet  wholly  in 
nature. 

Man  has,  beside  the  sentient  animal  life,  the  far  higher 
endowment  of  a  rational  existence.  The  peculiarities  of 
his  rational  being  are  in  the  following  distinctive  elements. 
He  can  originate  for  himself  what  to  him  are  the  perfect 
ideal  patterns  or  archetypes  of  that  which  is  the  beautiful, 
the  true,  and  the  good,  and  use  these  to  measure,  criticize, 
and  estimate  all  that  experience  may  offer.  Not  what  is 
taken  from  experience,  but  what  his  own  genius  creates  for 
him,  is  his  criterion  for  testing  what  he  shall  approve  and 
what  disapprove.  He  has  his  own  principles  or  standards 
of  judgment  within  himself,  and  with  which  the  material 
and  sentient  world  has  nothing  to  do.  He  has  also  that 
self-knowledge  which  determines  the  intrinsic  excellency 
of  this  his  rational  being,  and  what  is  due  to  himself  and 
worthy  of  himself  in  all  his  actions.  He  can  thus  feel  the 
claims  of  self-respect  and  responsibility  to  his  own  con 
science,  and  know  the  retributions  of  self-approbation  or 
self-reproach  according  as  his  deeds  sustain  or  violate  the 


80  THE   IDEA   OF   THE   ABSOLUTE. 

law  which  his  own  rational  being  imposes  upon  himself. 
Here  are  peculiar  self-relations  and  self-conditions,  all  sub 
sisting  within  the  rational,  and  having  no  dependence  upon 
his  animal  being.  The  rational  activity  is  competent  to 
guide  and  determine  itself  alone,  both  without  and  even 
against  the  animal  life. 

The  beautiful,  the  true,  and  the  right  are  in  the  reason 
itself,  and  instead  of  copying  them  from  nature  and  experi 
ence,  it  judges  both  nature  and  experience  by  them.  It 
can  move  itself  not  only  without  the  promptings  of  sentient 
nature,  but  directly  against  and  over  them.  All  of  nature 
may  be  on  one  side,  and  yet  the  rational  can  say,  I  ought 
and  I  will  stand  and  act  on  the  other  side.  It  can  make 
its  own  conscious  worth  and  dignity  its  end  of  action,  and 
exclude  all  other  ends  which  nature  may  present  from 
holding  any  competition  with  this.  Here  is  a  real  sponta 
neity,  related  in  its  activity  and  its  law,  its  going  forth  and 
the  end  it  is  to  reach,  only  to  itself.  It  furnishes  its  own 
end  and  occasion  for  its  activity.  Its  references  of  agency 
are  all  within  its  own  sphere,  and  its  conditions  of  direction 
and  result  are  all  self-imposed.  It  is  self  activity  self-di 
rected.  It  is  not  from  nature  nor  subject  to  nature ;  it  is 
wholly  above  nature.  Allied  to  nature  as  it  is,  even  as  the 
human  is  the  combination  of  the  animal  and  the  rational  in 
one,  still  the  rational  is  not  lost  and  absorbed  in  the  animal, 
but  ever  asserts  its  prerogative  over  it. 

Take,  then,  this  free  personality;  this  spontaneous 
agency  with  its  law  written  upon  and  rising  out  of  its  own 
being ;  and  we  have  made  a  long  advance  in  our  way  to 
the  Idea  of  the  Absolute.  We  have  found  that  which  may 
absolve  itself  from  all  the  domination  of  nature  and  stand 


THE  ABSOLUTE  AS  IN  THE  SEASON.         81 

forth  wholly  supernatural.    It  is  no  product  of  the  dia 
cursive  faculty,  and  no  attainment  of  analysis  and  abstrac 
tion,  but  a  cognition  attained  only  by  the  direct  insight  of 
the  reason.     The  eye  of  reason  sees  in  the  ground  of  the 
human,  that  this  self-activity  and  self-law  is  the  very  preroga 
tive  and  crown  of  its  being,  making  it  competent  to  rule 
over  nature,  and  to  live  immortal  with  no  help  from  nature. 
But  truly  an  activity  that  goes  out  of  its  own  accord,  as 
is  the  rational  in  humanity,  and  thoroughly  supernatural  as 
it  is,  yet  is  it  ever  subject  to  the  colliding  influences  of  flesh 
and  sense.    Even  when  regnant  over  every  appetite,  its' 
virtue  is  the  result  of  perpetual  watchfulness  and  struggle, 
and  at  no  moment  can  it  rest  in  serenity  and  be  sure  that 
some  suppressed  lust  shall  not  suddenly  spring  up  with 
inordinate  clamors  for  gratification.    It  can  never  be  other 
wise  than  militant  even  if  triumphant.     It  is  in  an  enemy's 
country,  and  owes  all  its  security  to  its  sleepless  valor.    In 
fallen  humanity  the  rational  has  already  sold  itself  in  bond 
age  to  the  animal,  and  basely  subjected  itself  to  nature,  and 
thus  conditioned  itself  under  a  load  of  necessities  that  it  is 
morally  helpless  to  throw  off.     "  The  law  in  the  members  » 
continually  "wars  against  the  law  of  the  mind,  and  brings 
in  subjection  to  the  law  of  sin  and  death,"  and  thus  with 
all  its  liberty  and  responsibility  and  supernatural  activity, 
humanity  is  no  ground  in  which  to  look  for  the  Absolute. 
Individually  and  collectively,  the  race  is  still  so  bound  in 
the  conditions  of  nature,  either  by  constitutional  or  moral 
alliance,  that  it  is  utterly  vain  to  hope  that  it  shall  ever  be 
thoroughly  absolved  therefrom. 

There  is  an  order  of  beings  above  us,  brought  to  our 
knowledge  by  revelation  rather  than  by  any  human  expe- 
6 


82  THE  IDEA   OF  THE  ABSOLUTE. 

rience,  who  in  all  the  prerogatives  of  rationality,  as  self- 
active,  self-directed,  and  self-rewarded,  are  endowed  like 
ourselves.  They  find  an  ultimate  end  to  their  activity  in 
the  securing  of  their  own  worthiness  of  character,  and  a 
constant  stimulus  and  directory  in  their  own  conscious  self- 
responsibility.  They  know  tha^t  they  cannot  stand  before 
the  tribunal  of  another,  unless  they  can  pass  the  scrutiniz 
ing  ordeal  of  their  own  consciences.  They  bring  up  from 
within  higher  and  wider  and  more  perfect  ideals  of  beauty 
and  truth,  and  can  thus  criticize  and  estimate  whatever 
may  come  into  their  larger  experience,  much  more  accu 
rately  and  comprehensively  than  can  be  effected  by  any  of 
the  human  family.  They  thus  are  higher  in  supernatural 
endowment  than  ourselves.  Add  to  all  this  the  great  dis 
tinction  that  they  are  not  incarnate,  and  have  no  subjection 
to  the  clogs  and  collisions  of  matter.  Their  reason  is  in 
corporeal;  or  if  there  be  a  corporeity,  it  is  what  the 
inspired  apostle  calls  "  a  spiritual  body,"  "bodies  celestial;" 
and  thus  imposing  upon  the  activity  and  the  spiritual  sensi 
bility  none  of  the  chafing,  fretting,  tempting  excitements 
of  our  carnal  nature.  Nor,  in  the  case  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  unfallen,  have  they  ever  subjected  themselves 
to  the  corrosion  and  desperation  which  necessarily  accom 
pany  the  remorse  of  conscious  guilt.  Here  then  is  an  abso 
lution  even  from  an  alliance  with  matter,  and  also  the  much 
more  important  consideration  that  they  are  absolved  from 
all  the  conditions,  without  and  within,  which  sin  imposes. 
Here  is  a  spontaneity  more  elevated,  and  a  law  of  higher 
import  and  in  clearer  characters  written  on  the  heart,  than 
any  that  the  eye  of  reason  has  yet  before  disclosed  to  us. 
Surely  in  so  wide  an  absolution  from  all  outer  conditions 


THE  ABSOLUTE  AS  IN  THE  REASON.         83 

we  must  be  near  the  attainment  of  the  Absolute  we  are 
seeking.  We  fix  this  conception  of  angelic  completeness 
and  perfection  in  our  mind,  and  ask,  is  not  here  the  abso 
lutely  free,  good,  and  holy  ? 

But  when  the  eye  of  reason  looks  more  narrowly  and 
penetrates  further  within  the  sphere  where  angel  and  arch 
angel  dwell,  many  occasions  of  outward  restraint  and  con 
ditions  of  imposed  necessities  appear  that  divide  the  angelic 
world  by  a  broad  line  of  demarcation  from  the  sphere  of 
the  Absolute.  There  are  ranks  and  orders  among  them, 
giving  rise  to  the  distinctive  appellations  of  archangel, 
thrones,  dominions,  powers  and  principalities;  there  are 
perhaps  different  kinds  of  being  indicated  by  the  names 
Angels,  Cherubim,  Seraphim,  and  the  Living  Ones  ;  all  im 
posing  the  conditions  of  superior  and  inferior,  prerogative 
and  subordination,  the  tie  of  a  class  and  the  spirit  of  a 
party ;  and  thus  opening  the  door  to  the  incoming  of  self 
ish  spiritual  passions  in  all  the  shapes  of  pride,  envy,  hate, 
jealousy,  ambition,  oppression,  rebellion,  deception,  &c.,  and 
which  have  actually  entered  in  all  the  malignity  and  men 
dacity  of  the  fallen  spirits.  The  highest  angel  is  still  limited 
in  rational  powers  and  activities,  and  thus  necessitated  to 
often  come  upon  themes  of  speculation,  and  questions  of 
practical  interest,  where  he  cannot  see  what  is  truth,  or 
know  which  is  duty,  and  thus  in  the  necessities  of  his 
finiteness  he  finds  himself  conditioned  to  seek  light  and  re 
ceive  commands  from  one  that  is  higher  than  himself.  He 
cannot  absolve  himself  from  these  conditions,  and  though 
he  were  to  be  true  to  all  the  light  he  has,  he  cannot  rise 
above  and  free  himself  from  these  necessities,  but  would 
be  doomed  to  go  on  eternally  in  darkness,  doubt,  and  fear, 


84:  THE  IDEA   OF   THE   ABSOLUTE. 

from  which  nothing  that  he  could  bring  out  from  himself 
could  deliver  him.  In  his  very  elevation,  the  boundless  un 
known  yet  before  him  would  leave  him  as  really  helpless  as 
the  lowest,  while  the  magnitude  of  the  issues  to  his  errors 
would  make  him  more  fearfully  dependent  than  any.  The 
highest  angel  must  be  ruled  by  a  higher,  and  thus  con 
ditioned  to  an  outer  authority,  or,  in  his  finiteness  and 
ignorance  without  a  higher,  must  be  doomed  to  the  con 
ditions  of  more  terrible  necessities,  and  thus  in  all  ways 
must  he  stand  far  below  the  Idea  of  the  Absolute. 

Now,  in  all  self-activity  and  self-law  there  is  the  concep 
tion  of  spirit  as  opposed  to  matter ;  essence  which  is  not 
substance  ;  and  also  is  there  in  this  involved  personality  as 
opposed  to  mere  animal  identity ;  a  law  both  in  precept 
and  penalty  sounding  through  the  whole  being  as  self- 
enacted  and  self-promulgated.  The  being  is  bound  to  be 
himself  his  own  end,  and  cannot  get  his  own  or  another's 
approbation  if  he  permit  himself  to  be  made  a  means  to 
any  other's  end.  In  humanity  is  such  personality,  but  not 
pure.  The  man  is  not  only  personal,  but  also  animal  as 
thing  in  nature.  The  angel  is  pure  personality,  but  not 
Absolute.  He  must  depend  on  the  instructions  and  requi 
sitions  of  a  higher.  The  authority  of  another  may  send 
the  sound  of  a  higher  law  through  the  soul,  and  then  his 
self-law  will  also  sound  through  his  spiritual  being,  that  in 
no  way  can  he  be  worthy  of  his  own  approbation  but  in 
unquestioning  obedience  to  this  higher  law.  To  that  he  is 
conditioned  by  what  is  due  to  himself. 

What  the  insight  of  reason  sees  here  to  be  necessary  is 
a  Supreme  personality,  elevated  above  all  possible  authority 
which  can  come  from  without  his  own  being.  The  inner 


THE  ABSOLUTE  AS  IN  THE  EEASON.         85 

light  of  reason  must  exclude  all  need  of  instruction,  and 
the  intrinsic  excellency  must  exclude  all  higher  law.  The 
Supreme  Spirit  is,  thus,  elevated  above  all  outer  authority, 
and  absolved  from  all  obligation  ab  extra.  He  is  condi 
tioned  solely  by  what  he  knows  in  himself  is  due  to  him 
self.  The  Supreme  Spirit  is  therefore  Absolute  self-law  and 
self-determiner.  This  is  the  Idea  of  the  Absolute  in  the 
reason ;  not  at  all  the  Infinite  in  space  and  time  ;  nor  the 
unconditioned  in  substance  and- cause;  nor  the  purely  ab 
stract  movement  of  thought  itself;  but  a  Supreme  Spirit 
self-determined.  Not  without  relation,  for  then  he  could 
not  be  expressed ;  but  a  pure  spontaneity  viewed  in  rela 
tion  to  its  own  known  intrinsic  excellency.  Not  without 
conditions,  for  he  could  not  then  come  within  any  explana 
tion  ;  but  conditioned  only  upon  the  perpetual  behest  of 
his  own  dignity,  or,  in  other  words,  that  he  do  all  things 
for  his  own  glory. 

Such  supreme  self-determination  is  the  very  conception 
of  Absolute  Reason.  All  that  belongs  to  nature  is  excluded 
from  it.  There  is  nothing  to  be  constructed  within  limits, 
for  it  is  independent  of  space  and  time ;  there  is  nothing  to 
be  connected  as  of  qualities  in  a  substance,  or  of  events  in 
a  cause,  for  there  is  nothing  to  which  the  conceptions  of 
statics  and  dynamics,  physical  substances  and  causes  can 
have  any  relevancy.  It  is  utterly  supernatural,  and  nothing 
of  the  laws  and  conditions  of  nature  can  possess  any  signifi- 
cancy  in  reference  to  it.  Reason  is  not  a  fact ;  a  some 
what  that  has  been  made;  but  from  its  own  necessity  of 
being  can  be  conceived  no  otherwise  than  a  verity  which 
fills  immensity  and  eternity.  In  it  is  self-knowledge,  self- 
action,  self-direction,  since  it  contains  the  archetypes  or 


86  THE  IDEA  OF  THE  ABSOLUTE. 

patterns  of  all  possibilities,  and  the  reason  for  taking  which 
in  the  determination  of  such  only  as  may  be  worthy  of  its 
own  acceptance ;  and  in  this  perpetual  equalling  and  filling 
its  own  demands,  there  is  necessarily  perpetual  self-satisfac 
tion  and  self-approbation.  It  is  unreasonable  that  there  is 
no  such  end,  and  no  such  determined  activity  towards  it, 
and  certain  attainment  of  it ;  or,  which  is  the  same  thing,  it 
is  absurd  to  suppose  that  the  Absolute  Reason  should  not 
both  be  and  fulfil  its  high  behests.  The  conception  of  the 
non-being  of  the  Absolute  Reason  involves  the  absurdity  of 
conceiving  reason  to  be  unreasonable.  To  the  Absolute 
Reason  there  must  be  the  known  necessity  for  itself;  the 
conscious  absurdity  that  it  should  not  be. 

Such  Absolute  Reason  is  manifestly  a  Person,  having  in 
himself  the  knowledge  of  all  possible,  and  the  self-deter 
mining  will  to  execute  all  his  own  behests.  To  him  there 
can  be  no  beginning  nor  end,  for  there  can  be  no  time 
when  he  was  not ;  and  to  him  there  can  be  no  bounds,  for 
there  can  be  no  place  where  he  is  not.  He  is  unsustained 
and  uncaused,  for  there  can  be  no  substance  which  he  does 
not  hold,  and  no  cause  which  he  does  not  originate.  He  is 
absolved  from  all  dependence  upon  and  determination  by 
any  being  other  than  himself.  Here  is  no  abstraction,  but 
the  positive  affirmation  of  the  I  AM  ;  he  who  has  being  and 
blessedness  and  exhaustless  fulness  in  himself;  even  the 
being  of  whom  it  would  be  an  everlasting  absurdity  to  sup 
pose  that  he  was  not,  and  was  not  blessed,  and  was  not 
satisfied.  Sense  cannot  perceive  Him ;  discursive  thought 
cannot  co/iceive  Him;  only  a  spiritual  discernment,  the 
direct  insight  of  reason,  can  behold  Him. 

All  the  attributes  which  our  manner  of  conceiving  apply 


THE  ABSOLUTE  AS  IN  THE  EEASON.         87 

to  him  participate  in  this  characteristic  of  absoluteness. 
His  wisdom  is  absolved  from  all  dependence  upon  outward 
conditions.  He  has  within  himself  the  reason-view  of  all 
things  possible  to  be  put  in  objective  being,  in  the  plans  or 
ideal  archetypes  to  which  they  must  conform,  and  his  re 
gard  to  that  which  is  worthy  of  his  own  acceptance  deter 
mines  what  of  all  that  is  possible  shall  also  be  actual.  He 
is  absolute  liberty,  for  the  one  rule  of  that  which  is  ever 
lastingly  worthy  of  himself,  and  securing  his  own  dignity 
or  glory,  gives  a  repellency  and  exclusion  of  all  ends  that 
might  tyrannize  and  enslave.  He  is  absolutely  blessed,  for 
in  his  constant  holiness  and  steadfast  purpose,  fixed  upon 
his  own  glory,  there  is  no  collision  or  disturbance,  but  the 
perpetual  serenity  of  an  unruffled  flow  of  righteousness. 
He  is  absolute  sovereign,  for  while  the  ultimate  end  of  his 
own  dignity  is  ever  before  him  and  eternally  directing  all 
his  agency,  he  as  supreme  has  rightful  authority  and  head 
ship  over  all  the  beings  that  exist  beside  him,  and  may 
rightfully  command  in  the  ends  of  his  glory  that  they 
should  serve  him  with  unquestioning  and  constant  devo 
tion.  He  is,  in  fine,  and  as  the  most  comprehensive  form 
of  expression,  THE  ABSOLUTE  GOOD;  good  in  himself  as 
supremely  excellent  without  any  reference  to  a  further  end, 
and  good  as  the  source  and  supplier  of  all  the  good  that 
any  other  beings  possess  and  enjoy.  He  can  be  put  to  no 
use  as  a  means  to  get  something  beyond  himself;  but  as 
the  end  of  all  ends,  all  other  things  fulfil  their  measure  in 
conspiring  to  present  that  to  him  which  is  in  honor  of  him. 
The  highest  seraph  and  the  humblest  saint  honor  them 
selves  only  in  their  devotion  to  his  honor. 

This  conceDtion  of  Deity  as  the  Absolute  Good,  holds 


THE  IDEA   OF  THE   ABSOLUTE. 

itself  completely  above  and  beyond  all  conceptions  that 
apply  to  nature,  and  are  formed  in  the  connections  of 
the  discursive  understanding.  Nature  has  its  conceived 
powers,  whicji  in  combination  make  up  all  the  statics  and 
dynamics  of  physical  science ;  but  within  the  Deity  there 
can  be  conceived  no  action  of  physical  forces,  pushing, 
pulling,  balancing,  preponderating  one  with  another.  No 
combinations  of  substances  can  be  here  conceived,  working 
their  changes  and  making  their  qualities  to  pass  away  as 
one  displaces  another,  which  is  the  constant  march  of  na 
ture's  causes  and  events ;  but  the  absolute  Jehovah  is  in 
essence  as  in  purpose,  "  without  variableness  or  the  shadow 
of  turning."  From  nature,  as  giving  a  permanent  position, 
we  determine  all  bearings  and  distances,  and  thus  judge  all 
places  to  belong  to  the  one  space ;  and  from  the  ongoing 
of  nature  we  determine  all  succession  and  duration,  and 
therefore  judge  all  periods  to  belong  to  the  one  time.  But 
in  our  conception  of  the  absolute  God  we  have  no  perma 
nent  points  from  whence  to  begin  any  measures  of  space, 
and  no  fixed  instants  from  whence  to  begin  any  computa 
tions  of  time.  In  the  Idea  of  the  Absolute  we  can  fix  no 
"here"  and  no  "there,"  no  "above"  nor  "below,"  no 
"  outside  "  nor  "  inside,"  no  "  shape  "  nor  "  distance."  Just 
as  little  from  this  Idea  can  we  determine  a  "now"  or 
"  then,"  a  "  before  "  or  "  after."  Space  and  tune  are  whol 
ly  irrelative ;  substance  and  cause  have  here  no  significancy. 
All  these  apply  to  nature,  and  the  Absolute  is  utterly  su 
pernatural.  He  maintains  his  being  without  resting  on  any 
substance ;  he  puts  forth  his  agency  without  waiting  on  any 
cause. 

As  thus  independent  of  nature,  he  can  be  conceived  as 


THE  ABSOLUTE  AS  IN  THE  REASON.         89 

the  Creator  and  Guide  of  nature.  He  has  the  conditions 
within  himself  for  an  activity  that  shall  put  nature  in  ob 
jective  being,  and  fix  the  current  of  its  flowing  events  to  a 
channel  that  shall  reach  and  consummate  his  pleasure.  The 
moving  spring  to  create,  and  to  create  thus  and  not  other 
wise,  is  in  no  constitutional  want,  no  appetite  he  finds  crav 
ing  within  him,  but  solely  the  conscious  behest  of  what  is 
due  to  himself  and  most  worthy  of  his  own  accepting.  It 
is  love,  in  the  acceptation  of  a  pure  pleasure  in  the  right, 
and  not  the  impulse  to  be  happy ;  a  regard  to  well-being 
and  not  merely  to  good-feeling. 

His  activity  may  thus  originate,  after  the  eternal  arche 
types  which  absolute  reason  supplies,  a  material  universe 
wisely  and  exactly  adapted  to  his  design.  Reason  deter 
mines  that  the  physical  should  minister  to  the  sentient,  and 
that  the  sentient  should  subserve  the  spiritual,  and  thus  it 
may  be  anticipated  that  the  creative  work  will  arrange 
itself  in  ministering  subserviences  through  the  varied  orders 
of  material,  vegetable,  animal,  and  spiritual  being,  bringing 
out  what  was  potentially  within  him,  and  guiding  on  to 
consummated  issues,  till  the  full  claims  of  his  own  intrinsic 
excellency  are  satisfied.  In  such  an  Idea  of  the  Absolute 
we  have  the  conception  of  a  God  who  is  at  once  Creator 
and  Governor ;  Author,  Guide,  and  Finisher  of  a  Cosmos, 
or  glorious  universe,  whose  only  reason  and  end  is  that  it 
is  worthy  of  his  own  acceptance  and  approbation. 


C-YV  CL'i^f ''*-*-"-* (- 

i         jl    'M-^ 

/~       '  — "^  •*-          •  ' 

/    \     r      j  ^'^    '^        "~ — '     v~~ }       ,    1  //  ^ 

i  A-  v.-   •  vy 


CHAPTEE    II. 

THE  ETERNAL  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  UNIVERSE. 

1.  MATTER  is  FORCE;  DISTINGUISHABLE  AS  ANTAGONIST 
AND  DIEEMPTIVE. — Spirit  must  be  senior  to  matter.  In 
the  already  attained  Idea  of  an  Absolute  spirit,  we  have 
that  which  is  essential  in  ah1  spirit.  That  a  spirit  may  be 
Absolute,  he  must  have  all  the  conditions  and  resources  of 
independent  action  and  direction  within  his  own  being,  and 
thus  stand  wholly  absolved  from  ah1  limitation  in  any  thing 
out  of  himself;  but  that  a  being  should  be  spirit,  absolute 
or  dependent,  he  must  have  spontaneous  activity  or  self- 
motion;  an  energizing  which  is  initiative  within  his  own 
being,  and  not  a  superinduced  impulse  from  another.  That 
such  Spirit  may  be  rational  and  free,  he  must  find  his  own 
ideals  in  himself,  and  be  competent  to  work  from  the  arche 
types  and  plans  of  his  own  origination.  He  must  have  his 
ultimate  ideas  of  the  beautiful,  the  true,  and  the  good,  and 
be  able  to  criticize  and  judge  of  all  beauty,  truth,  and 
goodness,  by  his  own  independent  standard.  Spiritual 
activity  is  always  simple,  without  counteraction  or  reac 
tion  ;  there  is  no  mechanical  impulse,  resistance,  nor  fric 
tion ;  no  composition  nor  resolution. 


• 


MATTER   AS   SUBSTANTIAL  EXISTENCE.  91 

But  what  is  Matter  ?  The  first  answer  comes  from  the 
sense.  The  conception  as  gained  in  experience,  the  earliest, 
the  easiest,  and  thus  the  common  conception  of  matter, 
is  that  of  some  dead,  dry,  hard  substance,  given  in  mass  of 
a  larger  or  smaller  volume.  It  is  found  divisible  into  parts, 
and  we  readily  conceive  that  the  largest  bodies  may  be 
made  up  of  small  particles,  and  in  our  analysis  of  these 
particles  we  bring  them  into  atoms  which  will  not  admit 
that  we  should  further  subdivide  them.  We  thus  begin 
with  that  into  which  we  have  analyzed  our  experience, 
and  conceive  of  matter  as  originally  existent  in  indivisible 
atoms,  and  that  by  various  conjunctions  of  the  atoms  all 
bodies  are  formed.  In  all  cases,  whether  as  atoms  or  in 
the  mass,  matter  is  for  the  sense  a  lifeless,  powerless,  mo 
tionless  substance;  utterly  inert,  except  as  something  is 
done  to  it,  and  hi  itself  only  existing  to  occupy  and  cumber 
the  place  it  fills. 

When  matter  is  subjected  to  a  nicer  scrutiny  in  experi 
ment,  the  conception  is  more  extended,  but  not  at  all  cor 
rected.  It  is  observed  that  matter  in  bodies  is  perpetually 
altering  its  qualities,  and  though  often  by  slow  gradations, 
yet  in  all  cases,  matter  is  moving  from  present  modes  of 
existence  and  transmuting  itself  to  other  forms.  Liquids 
are  congealed  or  pass  off  into  vapor ;  fermentation  carries 
its  changes  through  the  successive  saccharine,  vinous,  and 
acetous  stages ;  the  atoms  crumble  and  the  hardest  bodies 
become  disintegrated,  and  these  again  are  made  the  ele 
ments  of  new  compounds ;  living  agencies  are  assimilating 
and  building  up  new  bodies,  and  then  the  life  goes  out  and 
the  body  again  dissolves  and  their  elements  are  scattered ; 
and  colors,  densities,  magnitudes,  indeed  the  qualities  of 

/    '•//   <i  f    '  ±Zrtr~&A 

_ ^.  •-        .  _    ^— 


« 


92          THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

every  sense,  glide  from  one  into  another,  and  nothing 
ahides  permanently.  All  things  flow.  We  sometimes 
speak  as  if  one  portion  of  matter  moved  or  changed  other 
portions,  and  that  thus  matter  was  conceived  as  itself 
active  in  producing  its  changes;  but  a  partial  reflection 
again  qualifies  the  language,  and  we  speak  of  powers  and 
forces  given  to  matter,  and  that  the  imparted  force  and 
not  the  dead  matter  does  all  the  work  and  makes  all  the 
changes.  The  highest  conceptions  of  the  sense  will  there 
fore  be,  that  matter  itself  is  not  cause  except  as  a  causal 
efficiency  is  given  to  it;  that  the  forces  and  powers  of 
nature  are  superinduced  upon  matter,  and  are  something 
other  than  the  matter;  matter  is  mere  inertia,  and  all 
changes  are  wrought  in  it  and  not  by  it. 

But  when  such  a  conception  is  subjected  to  the  insight 
of  reason  it  is  found  utterly  empty,  and  that  nothing  can 
be  made  of  it  but  a  mere  negation.  To  attempt  applying 
it  to  any  use  is  an  absurdity.  What  can  this  passive  and 
inert  existence  do  ?  At  rest  it  cannot  move,  and  moving 
it  cannot  rest,  without  a  force  supplied  to  it.  It  can  nei 
ther  change  nor  resist  change,  neither  combine  nor  dis 
solve,  neither  sustain  nor  press,  except  as  power  is  given  to 
it  to  do  all  the  work.  Put  it  where  we  may  it  is  utterly  a 
caput-mortuum,  neither  acting  nor  reacting;  the  force 
given  to  it  does  all  things  for  it,  while  the  dead-head  itself 
is  incapable  of  any  use,  or  of  becoming  a  means  to  any  end. 
How  can  it  be  known  ?  If  any  sense  receive  an  impression 
and  thereby  a  sensation,  out  of  which  the  intellectual  action 
brings  a  distinct  and  definite  perception,  that  impression 
and  sensation  must  have  been  induced,  not  at  all  by  the 
dead  matter,  but  by  some  efficiency  put  into  matter,  and  it 


MATTER   AS    SUBSTANTIAL   EXISTENCE.  93 

must  be  this  and  not  the  matter  that  becomes  object  in 
perception.  What  then  can  it  be  f  It  cannot  exist,  for  it 
cannot  stand  out  in  any  sense ;  it  cannot  subsist,  for  it  can 
not  stand  under  any  quality ;  it  is  wholly  a  negation,  and  if 
we  should  attempt  to  conceive  of  it  in  any  way  as  object, 
it  would  be  the  absurdity  of  an  object  that  could  not  be 
put  before  any  organ  of  sense. 

We  must,  therefore,  wholly  renounce  such  a  conception 
of  matter,  for  indeed  upon  rational  examination  it  will  be 
found  to  be  an  impossible  conception,  a  mere  negation  in 
the  thought.  Let  us,  however,  keep  this  force,  which  we 
have  supposed  to  be  supplied  to  matter,  and  which  we  have 
found  in  such  case  must  work  all  the  mutations  that  occur 
in  matter,  carefully  subjected  to  a  rational  insight,  and 
determine  whether  indeed  this  force  that  does  all  that  is 
done  is  not  matter  itself.  Simple  activity  is  spiritual  ac 
tivity,  and  has  nothing  in  it  that  can  awaken  the  thought 
of  force ;  and  it  is  only  as  it  meets  some  opposing  action 
and  encounters  an  antagonist  that  we  come  to  have  the 
notion  of  force.  In  all  push  and  pull  there  is  counteraction, 
complex  action,  action  and  reaction,  while  simple  spiritual 
agency  can  never  be  made  a  conception  of  physical  exist 
ence.  It  cannot  be  thought  as  taking  and  holding  any 
fixed  position ;  it  cannot  become  a  permanent  and  have  a 
"  where "  that  it  might  be  conceived  to  pull  from,  nor  a 
"  there  "  that  it  might  be  conceived  to  push  to.  It  could 
not  be  determined  to  any  time  nor  to  any  place,  for  it  has 
no  constant  from  whence  the  determination  might  begin 
nor  where  it  might  end.  When,  however,  the  conception 
is  that  of  simple  action  in  counteraction,  an  activity  that 
works  from  opposite  sides  upon  itself,  we  have  in  it  at  once 


94:          THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

the  true  notion  of  force.  From  the  difficulty  of  clearly 
apprehending  counteraction  or  antagonism  in  a  single  ac 
tivity,  as  always  acting  in  opposite  directions  upon  or 
against  itself,  and  which  must  be  the  true  conception,  for 
the  notion  is  that  of  one  source  for  the  antagonism,  it  will 
be  more  readily  taken  and  equally  available  in  result,  if  we 
here,  and  generally  through  the  work,  conceive  of  two 
simple  activities  meeting  each  other  and  reciprocally  hold 
ing  back,  or  resting  against,  each  other,  and  thus  of  the 
two  making  a  third  thing  at  the  limit  of  meeting  which  is 
unlike  to  either.  In  neither  of  the  two  activities  can  there 
be  the  notion  of  force,  but  at  the  point  of  antagonism  force 
is  generated  and  one  new  thing  comes  from  the  synthesis 
of  the  two  activities.  To  distinguish  this  from  other  forces 
hereafter  found  we  call  it  antagonist  force.  In  this,  posi 
tion  is  taken,  and  there  is  more  than  the  idea  of  being, 
which  the  simple  activities  each  have ;  there  is  being  stand 
ing  out,  an  EXISTENCE  ;  being  in  re,  reality,  A  THINO. 

Let,  then,  an  indefinite  number  of  such  positions  con 
tiguous  to  each  other  be  conceived  as  so  taken  and  occu 
pied,  and  a  space  will  thereby  be  filled  and  holden ;  an 
aggregate  force  will  maintain  itself  in  a  place ;  and  a 
ground  is  given  on  which  other  things  may  rest.  A  sub 
stantial  reality  here  exists.  This  antagonism  may  be  con 
ceived  to  be  of  any  degree  of  intensity,  and  the  substantial 
ground  will  hold  its  place  with  the  same  amount  of  persist 
ency,  and  stand  there  permanent,  impenetrable,  and  real. 
Nothing  else  may  come  into  its  place  until  it  has  itself  been 
displaced.  It  is  not  inertia,  but  a  vis  inertice  ;  a  force 
resting  against  itself,  and  thus  holding  itself  in  place.  It 
rests,  because  it  has  intrinsically  an  equilibrating  resistance. 


MATTER   AS   SUBSTANTIAL   EXISTENCE.  95 

But  this  conception  of  antagonism  alone,  though  fully 
adequate  to  give  substantial  matter,  will  not  be  found  ade 
quate  to  give  such  forms  and  modes  of  matter  as  a  universe 
needs  for  the  rational  ends  designed  in  it.  There  will 
need  to  be  varied  substance ;  combinations  and  resolutions ; 
perpetual  changes  and  processes  through  successive  stages ; 
and  thus  our  very  primitive  idea  of  matter  must  compre 
hend  more  than  the  idea  of  pure  antagonist  force,  even  that 
which  may  dissolve  and  become  a  combination  with  pure 
antagonism.  We  conceive  then  of  an  activity  going  out  in 
exactly  the  reverse  process  of  our  antagonism,  even  a  begin 
ning  in  the  same  limit  of  the  meeting  simple  activities  and 
working  on  each  side  away  from  the  limit, ;  a  throwing  of 
simple  activities  in  opposite  directions  from  the  limit  of 
contact.  Not  a  counteracting  and  resisting,  but  a  divel- 
lent  and  disparting  activity ;  not  an  antagonistic,  but  here 
after  known  as  distinctively  a  diremptive  movement.  Such 
an  activity  could  not  be  conceived  as  space-filling  of  itself. 
Wherever  the  limit  in  which  there  might  be  conceived  the 
contact  of  two  simple  activities  should  be,  the  diremptive 
movement  would  be  away  from  that  limit,  on  each  side,  and 
thus  a  space-vacating  and  not  a  space-filling  activity.  The 
diremptive  movement  alone  would  be  a  disparting  and 
going  away  of  the  activities  from  each  other,  and  leaving  a 
void.  But  if  this  diremptive  movement  be  conceived  as  at 
tne  very  limit  and  point  of  contact  of  the  antagonism,  the 
antagonist  activity  working  toward  itself  in  the  limit,  and 
the  diremptive  activity  working  from  itself  out  of  the  limit, 
then  must  the  diremptive  movement  on  each  side  encounter 
the  antagonist  movement,  and  the  simple  diremptive  activi 
ty  going  out  on  one  side  from  the  limit  will  meet  the  sim- 


96          THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

pie  antagonist  activity  on  the  same  side  coming  in  to  the 
limit,  and  these  two  simples  of  the  opposite  kinds  of  forces 
must  make  a  new  counteraction  among  themselves.  And 
equally  so  with  the  going  out  and  the  coming  hi  of  the 
opposite  kinds  of  forces  hi  their  simple  activities  on  the 
other  side  of  the  limit,  the  one  must  encounter  the  other 
and  engender  a  new  counteraction  among  themselves  on 
this  other  side.  The  result  thus  must  be  that  while  the 
diremptive  activity  disparts  and  loosens  the  antagonism, 
the  antagonist  activity  on  the  other  hand  restrains  and 
binds  in  the  divellency,  and  thus  the  diremption  can  neither 
go  off  wholly  on  either  side  and  leave  the  limit  void,  nor 
the  antagonism  come  up  from  each  side  and  make  the  limit 
full,  but  both  antagonism  and  diremption  meet  hi  the  limit 
and  make  a  third  thing,  which  may  be  called  indifferently 
an  antagonist  force  loosed,  or  a  diremptive  force  fixed. 

The  pure  forces  hi  their  contact  in  the  simple  limit  may 
be  known  as  units  under  the  term  of  molecules,  or  molecu 
lar  forces ;  the  working  to  the  limit  constituting  an  antago 
nist  molecular  force,  and  the  working  away  from  the  limit 
constituting  a  diremptive  molecular  force.  The  combina 
tion  of  these  forces,  hi  their  joint  interaction  making  a  new 
compound  as  a  third  thing  unlike  to  either  alone,  may  be 
known  as  also  a  unit,  constituting  a  material  atom,  and 
which  may  further  on  be  known  as  a  chemical  atom  or 
molecule.  Our  conception  of  matter  must  therefore  be  of 
this  combination  of  distinguishable  forces,  though  we  shall 
find  it  convenient  for  the  more  clear  apprehension  of  the 
principles  of  the  universe  to  follow  out  the  workings  of 
each  distinctly  and  separately. 

2.  CREATION. — In  the  manner  here  used  creation  has 


CREATION,    AS   ORIGINATION   OF  MATTER.  97 

the  meaning  of  origination ;  the  putting  forth  of  something 
where  before  there  was  nothing,  and  this  something  thus 
set  forth  a  new  thing  which  had  not  previously  an  exist 
ence.  It  does  not  involve  the  impossible  thought  of  exist 
ence  coming  out  of  a  void  of  all  being.  The  axiom,  "  out 
of  nothing,  nothing  comes,"  is  to  be  taken  as  universally 
conclusive.  There  can  be  no  creation  without  a  Creator ; 
and  as  the  creation  we  now  seek  to  apprehend  is  that  of 
the  beginning  of  existence,  or  outer  being,  the  Creator 
must  himself  be  conceived  as  the  uncreated ;  he  who  ever 
is,  and  yet  who  never  exists.  His  being  is  never  objective ; 
expressed  in  form;  standing  out  in  definite  proportions; 
but  purely  spiritual,  and  known  only  in  that  supernatural 
light  to  which  no  mortal  can  approach.  This  ever  invisible 
Creator  puts  forth  a  material  creation  in  objective  palpable 
manifestation,  which  only  in  his  putting  forth  began  its 
existence.  How  shall  we  attain  to  a  rational  Idea  of  such 
creation  ?  The  intention  here  is  simply  to  attain  the  con 
ception  of  originated  existence,  leaving  the  detail  of  the 
completed  genesis  of  the  universe  to  many  subsequent 
separate  paragraphs. 

With  the  distinct  conception  of  force  as  the  essence  of 
all  material  being  clearly  in  mind,  we  seek  now  to  appre 
hend  how,  where  force  is  not,  it  may  begin  to  be.  Force 
cannot  come  from  utter  emptiness.  Nor  is  it  now  to  be 
apprehended  as  produced  from  some  antecedent  force,  and 
thus  a  propagation  or  production  from  some  force  already 
created.  Forces  may  change  their  modes  of  manifestation 
indefinitely,  and  this  will  be  but  the  progressive  develop 
ment  or  successive  births  and  growths  in  nature  itself;  but 
we  now  want  the  conception  of  nature's  origin.  The  great 
7 


98          THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

difficulty  to  a  clear  apprehension  is  removed  by  keeping  a 
steady  discrimination  between  the  functions  and  cognitions 
in  the  discursive  understanding  and  those  in  the  compre 
hensive  reason.  To  the  understanding  nothing  can  be  con 
ceived  as  literally  beginning  to  be.  That  which  is  must 
have  been  a  production  or  outgrowth  from  that  which  be 
fore  was,  and  all  new  things  are  only  some  changes  in  the 
modes  of  old  things.  The  whole  function  of  the  under 
standing  is  to  connect  in  judgments,  and  the  subject  must 
already  be  given  in  which  to  connect  the  new  predicate. 
The  predicate  must  be  thought  as  already  belonging  to  the 
subject.  If  there  is  a  new  quality,  it  cannot  be  viewed  as 
then  a  thing  newly  originated,  but  a  change  in  some  sub 
stance  that  had  before  existed ;  and  if  there  is  a  new  event, 
it  cannot  be  thought  as  then  having  its  origin,  but  only  as 
coming  out  from  some  old  cause  in  a  new  mode  of  exist 
ence.  The  water  following  the  ice  as  dissolved  is  not  new, 
nor  the  vapor  as  following  the  water,  but  the  new  predicate 
is  ever  from  some  old  subject.  For  any  thing  absolutely 
to  begin  to  be,  in  the  discursive  judgments  of  the  under 
standing,  would  be  the  absurdity  of  attempting  to  connect 
with  no  medium  ;  of  thinking  in  judgments  with  no  subject 
for  the  predicate.  To  this  faculty,  that  which  is  must  ever 
be  the  product  of  something  that  before  was ;  a  change  of 
some  old  existence  into  a  new  mode  of  manifestation.  Na 
ture  thus,  from  first  to  last,  goes  onward  the  same,  with  no 
originations  nor  annihilations,  but  only  a  perpetual  passing 
of  the  same  substances  into  new  modifications. 

But  when  we  keep  the  reason-idea  of  spiritual  agency, 
as  spontaneous  activity  self-directed,  we  shall  have  an  ut 
terly  new  kind  of  cause,  viz. :  a  cause  originating  or  caus- 


CREATION,    AS   ORIGINATION   OF   MATTER.  99 

ing  to  be  from  itself,  and  not  a  cause  conditioned  or  caused 
to  cause  from  something  back  of  itself.  It  is  activity  in 
liberty,  which  can  make  a  beginning  from  conditions  within 
its  own  being.  We  have  in  this  conception  no  impossi 
bilities,  nor  absurdities  of  the  last-first,  in  affirming  that 
we  may  intelligently  apprehend  how  an  utterly  new  thing 
can  absolutely  begin  existence.  With  all  rational  spirits 
there  is  such  capacity  of  initial  causality,  and  thus  of  all 
free  and  responsible  beings,  we  affirm  that  their  personal 
acts  are  their  own  origination,  and  can  no  more  be  transfer 
red  to  any  other  person  than  their  separate  identity.  Man 
and  angel  can,  in  this  sense,  truly  create.  Their  good  or 
bad  deeds  are  of  their  own  origination.  Whatever  another 
agent  may  do  in  throwing  his  own  conditions  upon  them, 
he  does  not  originate  their  acts  within  them. 

But  man  cannot  originate  new  forces,  and  thus  man 
cannot  create  matter.  He  is  himself  incarnate;  utterly 
merged  in  matter ;  and  can  thus  put  out  no  act  that  shall 
immediately  meet  another  act  in  counteraction,  but  his 
every  act  of  energizing  must  first  encounter  the  forces  in 
which  he  is  incorporated.  His  activity  meets  forces,  and 
moves  matter  already  created,  but  his  activity  cannot, 
with  nothing  between,  meet  itself  in  counteraction,  and 
take  a  new  position,  and  thus  begin  a  new  space-filling 
operation.  Yea,  if  we  were  to  conceive  of  angels  as  pure 
spirits,  activities  without  corporeity,  and  thus  competent  to 
make  one  act  counteract  and  hold  another  in  position,  yet 
these  counter  activities  could  only  be  within  their  own 
subjective  spheres,  and  condition  their  own  conscious  ac 
tivities,  and  could  be  no  forces  to  condition  other  agencies 
which  could  not  bring  themselves  within  their  subjective 


100       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

spheres.  Thus,  neither  man  nor  angel  can  be  conceived  as 
competent  to  create  force  that  shall  be  objective,  real,  sub 
stantial,  and  impenetrable  to  another  agency. 

But  with  the  conception  of  a  Supreme  Absolute  Spirit, 
all  these  difficulties  are  excluded.     He  can  begin  action, 
he  can  put  action  in  counteragency  with  no  forces  inter 
vening,  and  whatever  positions  he  may  thus  take  and  hold 
by  permanent  forces,  though  subjective  to  himself,  or  with 
in  his  own  sphere  of  agency,  they  may  be  objective  to  all 
other  being,  for  all  being  will  be  alike  subjective  to  Him  in 
whom  all  live  and  move  and  have  their  being.     Take  then 
the  Idea  of  the  Absolute,  already  attained,  and  within  the 
pure  spiritual  agency  of  his  being  there  is  no  force ;  no 
antagonism  or  counteragency.      Simple    spiritual  activity 
takes  no  positions,  fills  no  space,  puts  within  itself  no  lim 
its  from  whence  we   can  begin  to  determine  places  and 
periods.     Spaces  and  times  are  here  wholly  irrelevant,  and 
as  there  is  no  fixing  in  place  and  moving  in  successions,  so 
nothing  of  impenetrable  substances  and  series  of  physical 
causes  can  be  thought  as  lying  and  working  on  in  the  God 
head.     But  in  the  knowledge  he  has  of  his  own  supreme 
excellency  of  being,  there  is  an  end  in  his  own  dignity  and 
glory  ever  before  him.     He  knows  what  is  due  to  himself, 
and  nothing  can  intervene  that  he  should  not  be  true  to 
himself.     "  He  remaineth  faithful,  he  cannot  deny  himself." 
He  sees  that  it  behooves  him,  as  a  right  consciously  due  to 
himself,  to  manifest  himself  in  creation.     Under  such  ethi 
cal  behest,  and  not  at  all  before  the  impulse  of  any  con 
stitutional  craving,  God  arises  to  the  work  of  creation,  and 
becomes  a  beginner  and  Author  of  an  existence  which 
before  was  not. 


CREATION,    AS   ORIGINATION   OF   MATTER.  101 

Solely  from  the  reason,  and  not  from  any  want  as  if  he 
too  had  a  nature,  God  puts  his  simple  activity  in  counter 
agency.  He  makes  act  meet  and  hold  act,  and  in  this 
originates  an  antagonism  which  constitutes  force ;  a  new 
thing;  a  something  standing  out  for  objective  manifesta 
tion,  and  holding  itself  in  position  as  a  reality  distinct  from 
his  own  subjective  simplicity.  This  force  fixes  itself  in 
position  ;  holds  itself  at  rest ;  and  so  far  from  being  inert, 
its  very  existence  is  a  vis  inertiw,  or  a  force  actively  hold 
ing  itself  still.  Combined  with  this  antagonist  activity,  in 
the  same  limit  of  counteraction,  is  the  diremptive  activity 
that  works  conversely  to  the  antagonism,  and  which 
though  hereafter  to  be  considered  distinctly,  may  now  for 
the  present  be  apprehended  as  in  unity,  and  the  antago 
nism  and  diremption  to  be  the  one  agency  of  the  Absolute 
Spirit  in  one  and  the  same  limit  of  their  action ;  the  antago 
nism  working  each  way  into  the  limit  and  the  diremption 
working  each  way  out  from  the  limit,  and  both  making  in 
their  interaction  a  compound  material  substance,  which 
has  the  disparting  of  the  antagonism  in  the  diremption 
between  the  counterworking  activities,  and  the  fixing  of 
the,  diremption  by  the  antagonism  on  each  side  of  the 
divellent  activities.  There  is  thus  the  combination  of  three 
molecular  forces  in  one  limit — the  diremption  works  each 
way  out  from  the  limit,  and  thus  counterworks  with  an 
antagonism  coming  up  each  way  in  the  limit,  and  thereby 
two  antagonisms  and  one  diremptive  force  equilibrate  each 
other  and  fill  and  hold  the  space  they  have  taken.  Any 
considerable  extent  of  space  so  filled,  a  cubic  inch,  or  a 
cubic  mile,  is  a  creation  of  matter  palpable  to  the  senses, 
impenetrable  and  substantial.  The  force  in  every  position 


102       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

becomes  a  force  reciprocally  acting  through  the  whole 
place  filled,  and  is  at  once  subject  to  its  own  inherent  laws 
and  bound  on  its  course  of  necessitated  successive  develop 
ment.  It  is  a  nature,  having  already  in  it  a  conditioned 
and  predetermined  series  of  growths  which  must  come  out 
in  their  own  order. 

The  simplicity  of  the  spiritual  works  on  still  undis 
turbed  within  the  Deity,  for  no  conditions  of  the  material 
reach  back  of  the  point  of  counter-agency.  In  matter  is 
force,  or  the  physical,  and  all  its  necessitated  efficiencies 
work  downward  in  their  destined  sequences,  but  above 
matter  all  is  still  spiritual,  supernatural,  the  free  ongoings 
of  spontaneous  activity  directed  upon  the  end  of  its  own 
dignity  or  glory.  The  physical  cannot  push  itself  back 
and  hinder,  tire,  or  in  any  way  interrupt  the  activities  of 
the  spiritual;  and  the  spiritual  cannot  bring  itself  down, 
and  reveal  its  agency  amid  the  statics  of  the  substantial  or 
the  dynamics  of  the  causal,  and  thus  appear  on  the  same 
theatre  with  the  physical  phenomena,  but  the  natural  and 
the  supernatural  spheres  are  forever  separated  in  the  limit 
where  simple  agencies  in  counteraction  become  a  new 
thing  that  holds  its  place,  and  works  its  way,  as  a  physical 
force  necessitating  its  products.  The  creation  of  the 
material  is  from  God ;  its  genesis  is  in  him ;  its  perpetua 
tion  and  sustentation  is  from  the  continual  going  out  of 
his  simple  activity ;  but  this  material  is  not  God,  nor  at  all 
competent  to  rise  from  its  imposed  conditions  into  the 
place  of  the  Absolute.  The  Logos,  or  divine  working 
word,  is  in  the  world ;  is  the  life  and  light  of  the  world ; 
and  yet  he  was  in  the  beginning  with  God,  and  ever  is 
God,  while  the  world  is  not  he  but  his  creature. 


SPACE   AND   TIME   DETEEMINED.  103 

3.  THE  DETERMINATION  OF  SPACE  AND  TIME. — There 
are  many  kinds  of  space  and  of  time,  and  one  may  apper 
tain  to  one  person  and  another  to  another  person,  and  that 
which  has  pertinency  to  one  may  be  wholly  impertinent 
and  irrelevant  to  the  other,  and  if  left  to  tl^eir  own  sensible 
experience,  or  the  deductions  of  the  logical  understanding, 
neither  one  could  determine  his  own  spaces  and  times  to 
belong  to  one  space  and  one  time,  nor  that  the  spaces  and 
times  of  both  belonged  to  one  common  space  and  one  com 
mon  time.  These  very  significant  propositions  are  usually 
wholly  overlooked,  and  most  persons  make  no  question  of 
any  distinctions  in  kind,  in  spaces  and  times,  and  thus  ap 
prehend  nothing  of  the  difficulty  or  the  importance  of  the 
determination  of  spaces  and  times.  A  few  obvious  but 
disregarded  facts  presented  carefully  to  the  insight  of  rea 
son  will  very  fully  convince  us  that  our  experience,  or  our 
logical  judgments,  have  nothing  to  do  in  determining  space 
and  time,  and  that  such  determination  can  only  be  made 
by  fixed  forces,  in  position,  and  their  perpetual  changes  in 
succession. 

There  may  be  a  morbid  affection  or  some  unnatural 
distortion  given  to  the  eye,  which  shall  induce  fantastic 
colored  spots  even  when  the  eye  is  closed.  With  such 
phantasms,  a  space  is  also  given  in  which  they  appear,  but 
so  soon  as  the  colored  spots  vanish,  the  space  in  which  they 
were  goes  out  with  them.  If  on  another  day  other  such 
phenomena  occur,  a  space  again  is  given  in  which  they 
have  their  different  places.  Now  neither  the  experience 
nor  the  judgment  can  determine  that  these  spaces  are  the 
same,  or  that  they  belong  to  one  and  the  same  whole  of  all 
space.  They  came  with  their  colored  spots  and  went  with 


104       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

them,  and  each  space  is  in  the  experience  as  distinct  from 
the  other  as  the  spots  in  one  are  distinct  from  those  in  the 
other.  Two  persons  may  have  such  phenomena,  but  the 
spots  and  the  spaces  are  for  each  person  his  own,  and  one 
can  no  more  say^the  space  he  has  is  the  same  that  the  other 
has,  than  that  his  spots  are  the  same.  There  are  here 
many  different  spaces. 

So  when  I  construct  any  pure  diagram,  as  a  triangle  or 
a  circle,  that  pure  figure  has  a  space  in  which  it  is  given, 
and  when  the  figure  drops  from  the  inner  consciousness, 
the  space  in  which  it  was  is  lost  also.  I  may  successively 
make  and  lose  many  such  constructions,  but  I  shall  always 
have  and  lose  their  spaces  with  them.  Two  persons,  or 
any  number  of  persons,  may  be  constructing  their  pure 
figures,  and  they  will  all  have  their  spaces  with  their  dia 
grams,  but  neither  the  one  can  determine  all  his  spaces  to 
belong  to  one  whole  space,  nor  the  whole  number  of  per 
sons  determine  that  all  their  spaces  belong  to  one  space  in 
common.  Much  less  could  any  determine  that  the  spaces 
in  the  affected  organ,  as  before,  and  those  in  the  inner  con 
sciousness,  as  now,  belonged  to  one  space. 

Thus,  again,  of  any  mirror ;  there  is  a  space  whenever 
there  is  a  reflected  image;  but  if  the  mirror  reflect  no 
image,  it  will  give  no  space.  The  spaces  come  and  go  with 
the  reflections.  A  cloud  passes  over  the  face  of  the  lake 
which  had  mirrored  the  heavens  and  the  objects  on  its 
borders,  and  the  space  and  the  images  go  together,  and 
when  the  cloud  has  gone  the  images  and  their  space  again 
come.  No  experience  nor  discursive  understanding  can 
make  the  different  mirrored-spaces  stand  together  in  one 
space,  nor  ah1  spaces  into  one  whole  of  all  space. 


SPACE   AND   TIME   DETEEMINED.  105 

Just  so  also  of  time.  I  may  be  absorbed  in  mental  re 
flection  and  take  no  note  of  outer  successions,  and  I  shall 
be  conscious  that  a  time  has  been  passing  in  that  my  inward 
thoughts  and  reflections  have  been  succeeding  each  other. 
I  may  again  arouse  myself  to  a  consciousness  of  outer 
objective  successions  or  may  have  an  interval  of  sleep,  and 
afterwards  another  experience  of  reflection  or  musing  medi 
tation  may  occur,  with  its  consciousness  that  a  time  is  pass 
ing  though  I  take  no  notice  of  any  outward  ongoing.  Here 
will  be  different  musing-times,  but  no  experience  nor  logi 
cal  judgment  can  affirm  that  they  belong  to  one  time. 
Two  persons  may  so  meditate  in  separate  absorption  of  all 
outer  consciousness,  and  each  will  have  his  own  musing- 
time  because  each  will  have  his  own  inward  successions, 
but  neither  nor  both  together  can  put  their  distinct  times 
into  one  time. 

Or,  again,  one  may  dream,  and  after  an  interval  of  deep 
sleep  or  waking  consciousness  may  dream  again,  and  with 
each  dream  there  will  be  its  own  dreaming-time,  but  no 
experience  or  discursive  thought  can  put  the  different 
dreaming-times  into  one  time.  Two  or  more  persons  may 
so  dream,  and  each  have  his  own  time  in  his  dream,  but  no 
one  nor  all  together  can  connect  their  separate  dreaming- 
times  into  one  common  time  for  all.  How  much  less  shall 
any  one  make  all  musing-times  and  dreaming-times  to  con 
nect  in  one  common  time.  The  tunes  are  given  in  refer 
ence  to  the  successions  which  pass  in  the  inward  conscious 
ness,  and  if  there  are  alternations  of  conscious  movement 
with  suspensions  of  all  movement  in  unconsciousness,  the 
interrupted  experience  can  in  no  way  join  itself  into  one, 


106       THE   ETEENAL   PEINCIPLES   OF   THE   TJNIVEKSE. 

nor  can  any  connections  of  the  logical  judgment  bridge 
over  the  chasms. 

Even  so  with  all  objective  spaces  and  times ;  the  experi 
ence  and  the  logical  thought  can  never  make  them  to  be  in 
one  space  and  one  time.  I  look  upon  some  broad  land 
scape  and  determine  all  its  distinct  objects  relatively  to 
each  other,  and  make  the  whole  to  belong  together  in  one 
place,  as  a  space  which  contains  them.  But  if  I  am  re 
moved  in  my  sleep  to  another  position,  and  I  awake  again 
and  look  upon  another  landscape,  I  can  again  make  all  its 
objects  to  belong  to  one  place  as  a  space  containing  them ; 
but  I  can  neither  by  experience  nor  judgment  put  these 
two  spaces  together  into  one  space,  and  say  which  direction 
the  one  is  from  the  other,  nor  determine  that  the  two 
belong  indeed  to  the  one  whole  of  all  space,  for  neither  my 
experience,  nor  my  logical  understanding,  as  an  induction 
from  all  that  experience  gives,  can  determine  that  there  is 
any  one  whole  of  all  space.  And  two  or  more  persons  may 
each  have  their  landscapes  with  their  different  objects  de 
termined  in  their  relative  positions  in  one  place  as  a  space 
containing  each  landscape,  but  neither  one  nor  all  these 
persons  could,  from  their  experience  or  their  logical  think 
ing,  determine  that  the  spaces  which  held  all  their  land 
scapes,  respectively,  belonged  to-  one  space,  nor  even  that 
there  was  any  one  space  which  contained  all  spaces. 

And  so  also  I  experience  a  series  of  successive  changes 
in  surrounding  objects,  as  the  passing  of  different  shadows 
and  changes  of  color  over  the  landscape,  and  I  can  deter 
mine  them  in  their  relative  periods  in  the  one  time  of  dura 
tion  for  them  all.  And  if  I  am  in  unconsciousness  stopped 
from  all  experience,  and  again  watch  the  changes  of  a 


SPACE   AND   TIME   DETERMINED.  107 

landscape  in  some  other  conscious  experience,  I  can  put  all 
the  occurrences  again  into  their  relative  periods  during  the 
one  time  of  their  successions,  but  if  this  last  also  be  cut  off 
from  all  succession  in  unconsciousness,  I  cannot  say,  either 
from  my  experience  or  my  logical  thinking,  that  these  two 
times  of  landscape-changes  are  in  one  time,  or  which  is  be 
fore  and  which  after  the  other.  The  chasms  of  uncon 
sciousness  sunder  the  continuance  of  successions,  and  when 
the  experience  has  been  cut  off  from  both  completely,  they 
stand  each  in  their  own  time,  and  nothing  is  given  to  per 
mit  the  connecting  of  the  two  times  into  one  and  determin 
ing  their  order  of  occurrence.  And  if  two  or  more  persons 
had  their  conscious  objective  successions,  they  would  each 
have  their  times,  and  their  determined  relative  occurrences 
in  their  times  respectively,  but  neither  one  nor  all  could 
put  their  respective  times  into  one,  nor  show  any  relative 
order  of  occurrence  in  reference  to  them. 

Each  man's  spaces  and  times  are  only  his  own  spaces 
and  times,  and  where  they  have  been  disjoined  in  his  expe 
rience,  his  discursive  thought  can  never  put  them  together, 
and  much  less  can  any  one  man  put  all  the  spaces  and  times 
of  all  men  into  one  space  and  one  time.  So  it  must  ever 
be,  when  all  men  are  left  only  to  experience  or  the  deduc 
tions  of  the  logical  understanding  to  determine  space  and 
time ;  they  can  never  bring  their  own  distinct  spaces  and 
times  into  one  space  and  time,  nor  ever  possess  one  com 
mon  space  and  one  common  tune  between  them.  Experi 
ence  gives  them  many  different  spaces  and  times,  and  no 
judgment  from  experience  could  put  the  different  spaces 
into  one  space  nor  the  different  times  into  one  time.  Each 
man's  places  and  periods  would  be  for  him  just  as  he 


108       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

constructed  them,  and  he  could  determine  nothing  for  an 
other. 

But  the  insight  of  the  reason  finds  at  once,  that  if  there 
be  one  substantial  existing  object  that  holds  its  permanent 
position  for  the  same  man  through  all  his  subjective  states 
of  consciousness,  this  will  enable  him  to  determine  all 
places  from  this  one  place ;  and  if  this  one  substantial  object 
be  common  to  all  men,  it  will  enable  all  men  to  determine 
for  themselves  one  common  space.  The  one  man,  and  all 
men,  can  construct  bearings  and  distances  from  one  and 
the  same  position,  and  thus  each  man  and  all  men  may 
determine  one  and  the  same  space.  And  also,  if  this  sub 
stantial  object  vary  its  phenomena  successively,  it  will 
enable  each  man  and  all  men  to  come  to  the  same  succes 
sions,  and  determine  one  time  for  each  man's  times  and  all 
men's  times.  It  is  from  this  necessary  principle  of  space 
and  time-determinations  that  in  Rational  Psychology  we 
demonstrate  the  existence  of  a  real  substantial  universe 
against  all  Sensationalism  and  Idealism.  All  men  have  the 
determination  of  one  common  space  and  one  common  time, 
but  this  could  not  possibly  be,  except  upon  their  com 
munion  with  the  same  substantial  nature  both  in  its  perma 
nence  and  orderly  successions. 

We  thus  know  that  when  as  yet  nature  had  not  been 
put  out  in  objective  manifestation,  nature's  place  and  time 
could  have  no  determinate  significancy.  If  the  present 
nature  of  things  be  annihilated,  the  determinate  places  and 
periods  of  nature  would  vanish  with  nature  itself,  and  if 
there  were  minds  to  have  inward  experiences,  they  might 
construct  inward  figures  and  have  subjective  spaces,  and 
limit  successive  movements  and  have  subjective  periods; 


SPACE   AND   TIME   DETERMINED.  109 

but  each  mind  only  for  itself,  and  could  never  put  each  his 
own  places  and  periods  into  one  space  and  one  time,  nor 
bring  all  men's  spaces  to  one  common  space,  nor  all  men's 
times  to  one  common  time.  And  should  another  nature 
of  things  be  created,  it  would  come  up  in  its  own  deter 
minate  space  and  time,  and  no  understanding  could  con 
nect  it  in  the  same  one  space  and  one  time  of  the  nature 
which  had  been  annihilated.  All  minds  must  be  able  to  go 
to  one  and  the  same  substantial  nature  of  things  for  the 
determination  of  their  spaces  and  times,  or  they  can  never 
determine  that  they  have  one  common  space  and  one  com 
mon  time. 

When,  therefore,  we  conceive  of  an  Absolute  Creator, 
setting  his  simple  activity  in  counteragency  and  taking  a 
position,  and  in  balanced  antagonism  holding  that  position 
permanently,  we  have  in  it  all  that  is  conditional  for  space 
and  time  determination.  In  the  simple  spiritual  agency 
we  can  determine  nothing  of  space  or  time,  for  there  is  no 
fixed  point  from  whence  to  determine  direction  and  dis 
tance,  and  no  fixed  instant  from  whence  to  determine 
successions  and  durations.  But  in  the  genesis  of  a  force 
there  is  a  determinate  place  taken,  and  in  the  developed 
progress  of  its  working  according  to  its  inherent  conditions 
there  is  a  determinate  succession,  and  each  man  may  deter 
mine  here  his  own  places  by  the  one  space,  and  his  own 
times  by  the  one  time,  and  all  men  may  here  determine 
one  space  and  one  time  in  common  for  them.  While  each 
man's  subjective  spaces  and  tunes  are  still  his  own,  and  no 
other  mind  can  come  in  communion  with  them,  the  one 
substantial  space-filling  and  time-enduring  force  is  common 
to  all  for  the  same  space  and  time  determination. 


110        THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

4.  MATTER  MUST  IMPRESS  ITSELF  UPON  THE  SENSES. — If 
matter  were  conceived  as  wholly  inert,  it  would  be  utterly 
inexplicable  how  it  should  affect  any  sense,  and  its  qualities 
become  perceived  through  any  organ.  Whatever  was 
done  must  be  by  some  imparted  force,  and  that  would  give 
the  whole  impression,  while  the  dead  matter  would  be  en 
tirely  superfluous.  As  it  could  affect  nothing  so  the  senses 
could  perceive  nothing  of  it.  But  when  we  conceive  of 
the  substantial  matter  itself  as  a  force  filling  certain  places 
in  space,  we  may  readily  apprehend  how  the  senses  must 
be  impressed  by  it,  and  the  sensations  induced  be  brought 
up  into  the  light  of  consciousness. 

The  sense  can  never  go  back  of  the  sensation  and  deter 
mine  any  thing  of  the  substantial  being  which  gives  the 
sensation,  for  the  sensation  in  the  organ  is  the  only  content 
or  material  out  of  which  the  perception  is  made.  The 
substance  affects  the  organ,  and  the  intellect  distinguishes 
and  defines  this  affection  in  the  organ,  and  this  only  ap 
pears,  or  becomes  a  phenomenon.  We  can  never  perceive 
the  substance,  and  only  the  peculiar  manner  in  which  the 
substance  has  affected  the  organ,  and  hence  the  sense  can 
only  give  us  the  qualities  of  things  and  not  the  things  in 
themselves. 

But  the  insight  of  reason  penetrates  the  act  of  percep 
tion  itself,  and  comprehends  the  sense  in  its  complete  func 
tion,  thoroughly.  The  organ  must  in  some  way  be  affected 
from  without  itself,  and  this  affection  induces  the  sensation 
within  itself,  and  as  this  has  its  own  peculiar  modification 
according  to  the  nature  of  the  organ  affected,  so  that  must 
be  distinguished  by  the  intellectual  agency  and  the  pecu 
liar  quality  determined,  and  this  determined  quality  must, 


MATTER   AS   SENSIBLY   PERCEPTIBLE.  Ill 

by  a  still  further  intellectual  action,  be  wholly  defined  and 
the  quantity  of  the  quality  fully  perceived,  whether  in 
space,  time,  or  amount.  The  qualities  perceived  are  but 
the  modes  in  which  the  substantial  reality  impresses  itself 
upon,  and  thus  manifests  itself  in  the  sense.  And  with 
this  conception  of  a  space-filling  force,  it  is  quite  competent 
for  the  understanding  to  trace  its  necessary  connections  in 
any  organ,  and  thus  attain  the  clear  idea  of  the  functions 
of  the  sense  through  all  its  kinds  and  varieties  of  percep 
tion.  The  inherent  energy  in  matter  itself  is  sufficient  to 
impress  itself  upon  the  senses,  and  make  its  qualities  to  be 
perceived.  We  will  go  through  the  senses  in  the  order 
that  the  impressions  will  be  most  readily  apprehended. 

The  Touch. — The  essential  being  of  matter  is  force,  or 
counteragency,  and  it  is  the  nature  of  this,  in  its  balanced 
action,  to  hold  itself  permanently  in  the  position  it  takes. 
The  organ  of  touch,  here  anticipated  as  already  existing,  is 
the  finger  or  some  fleshy  part  of  the  body,  and  is  thus  itself, 
like  all  matter,  a  composition  of  space-filling  forces  which 
hold  themselves  permanent  in  their  place,  and  moreover 
the  finger  possesses  a  vital  and  sentient  activity  which 
penetrates  every  part,  and  capacitates  it  for  communion 
with  the  intellectual  agency  which  must  distinguish  and 
define  its  content.  The  organ,  therefore,  has  its  own 
place,  and  its  conditioned  nature  to  retain  its  position,  and 
its  medium  of  communication  with  the  intellectual  and  con 
scious  spirit. 

When  this  organ,  then,  is  made  to  meet  any  matter, 
either  by  invading  the  place  of  another  portion,  or  by  being 
invaded  itself  by  another,  there  must  supervene  in  the  con 
tact  a  reciprocal  pressure,  and  which  may  be  more  nicely 


112        THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

regulated  by  the  voluntary  action  of  the  living  muscles, 
and  by  this  impression  an  affection  or  proper  sensation  is 
given  to  the  vitalized  material  organ.  The  matter  touched 
may  be  made  solid  by  any  different  degrees  of  intensity  in 
its  constituting  forces,  and  may  also  have  its  surface  of  any 
variety  of  shape  and  outline,  and  which  must  determine  the 
accordant  impression  upon  the  organ ;  and  when  this  is  dis 
tinguished  and  defined  by  the  intellectual  action,  the  per 
ception  of  the  quality,  as  hardness,  roughness,  weight,  &c., 
will  be  perfected.  This  impenetrable  space-filling  force 
may  impress  the  sense  of  touch  with  any  conceivable  degree 
of  resistance,  and  must  thus  give  to  itself  in  the  perception 
the  like  degree  of  intensity  as  quality. 

The  impression  is,  in  this  sense,  made  only  by  actual 
contact,  and  thus  no  condition  is  given  whereby  to  deter 
mine  distance  from  the  organ ;  but  relative  distances,  as 
extension  in  space  and  outline  of  figure,  may  readily  be  de 
termined  by  a  continuous  application  of  the  organ  of  touch 
to  the  resisting  matter.  So  far  as  there  is  a  continuous 
progressive  contact,  either  by  the  organ  moving  over  the 
matter  or  the  matter  moving  on  the  organ,  the  occasion 
for  determining  extension,  shape,  and  size  is  given,  and  the 
sense  can  thus  perceive  all  the  qualities  of  length,  breadth, 
thickness,  and  complete  shape  which  the  matter  may 
possess. 

In  all  the  above  cases  a  conscious  measure  of  muscular 
pressure  has  been  necessary  to  the  perception,  but  a  much 
lighter  contact  with  the  opposing  matter  in  a  slight  friction 
upon  it,  will  give  phenomena  that  are  considered  rather  as 
sensations  awakened  in  ourselves  than  as  qualities  possessed 
by  the  matter,  and  it  is  only  in  such  a  degree  of  intensity 


MATTER   AS    SENSIBLY   PERCEPTIB 


that  the  matter  occasioning  it  forces  itself  upo 


tion,  that  we  can  refer  the  phenomenon  as  quality  to"~the 
matter  itself.  Thus  with  the  feeling  of  irritation,  titulation, 
and  gentle  warmth  or  coolness,  when  slight,  we  say  we  feel 
the  sensations ;  but  when  more  intense,  and  the  thought  of 
the  matter  occasioning  it  obtrudes  itself,  we  say  the  body 
feels  rough,  harsh,  hot  or  cold,  and  we  apply  the  sensation 
at  once  as  qualities  of  the  matter. 

It  is  herein  manifest  that  nothing  further  is  necessary 
to  conceive,  as  the  inherent  essence  and  constitution  of 
matter,  than  a  force  filling  and  holding  its  position  in  space, 
and  all  the  possible  qualities  which  the  touch  can  perceive 
must  be  very  intelligently  occasioned  by  it. 

The  Taste. — All  matter  in  a  mass,  larger  or  smaller,  is  a 
compound  of  the  elemental  forces  each  in  its  own  position, 
and  thus  each  point  of  force  may  be  taken  to  be  a  molecule 
of  matter.  These  must  also  be  more  or  less  intense  or 
must  have  varied  directions  and  combinations  given  to 
their  antagonism,  and  thus  the  molecules  of  matter  must 
be  of  great  variety.  The  atomic  existence  and  varied  com 
position  may  give  occasion  to  ah1  the  varied  forms  of  matter 
in  what  is  known  of  earths,  metals,  salts,  alkalis,  acids,  &c. 

The  tongue,  also,  as  the  organ  of  taste,  with  the  sur 
rounding  parts  of  the  mouth,  is  here  anticipated  as  having 
its  composition  of  corpuscles,  and  the  whole  vivified  and 
sentient  with  that  living  activity  which  has  assimilated  and 
incorporated  them.  This  organ,  from  its  own  construction, 
is  hereby  fitted  to  take  on  the  peculiar  sensations  given 
when  the  sapid  matter  is  in  contact  with  it.  The  condi 
tions  for  the  sensation  of  taste  have  this  peculiarity  in  dis 
tinction  from  the  touch,  that  there  must  be  not  merely 
8 


114       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

contact,  but  a  dissolving  of  the  compound  body,  and  the 
bringing  of  the  separate  molecules  upon  the  organ  in  their 
own  particular  degree  and  variety  of  pungency.  These 
different  particles  give  occasion  to  different  sensations,  and 
when  these  are  intellectually  distinguished  and  defined 
there  will  be  all  the  conditions  for  complete  perception. 

The  Smell. — The  living  assimilating  process  builds  up 
also  an  organ,  for  attaining  the  different  odors  by  which 
the  material  world  is  qualified,  in  the  nose.  Penetrated  as 
it  is  with  sentient  life,  it  becomes  competent  to  receive  the 
impressions  which  the  effluvia  from  surrounding  bodies  may 
make  upon  it. 

The  essential  elements  of  matter  in  the  primitive  forces 
which  compose  it  may  be  more  or  less  intensely  held  in 
position,  and  more  or  less  firmly  adherent,  and  thus  some 
portions  of  matter  may  be  permanently  adhesive  and  must 
therefore  be  inodorous  ;  other  matter  may  be  volatile  and 
admit  that  the  various  mechanical  agencies  that  surround  it 
may  readily  force  off  some  of  the  elemental  particles  and 
thus  effectually  surround  itself  with  an  effluvia  from  its  own 
substance.  The  tension  of  the  particles,  and  the  energy 
and  direction  with  which  they  must  be  thrown  upon  the 
organ  will  determine  the  impressions  made,  and  thus  from 
either  the  conditions  in  the  effluvia  itself  or  those  of  its 
transmission  to  the  organ,  there  must  be  sensations  of  all 
varieties,  giving  occasion  for  distinctly  and  definitely  per 
ceiving  all  kinds  of  odors.  The  aroma  may  so  stimulate 
and  excite  as  to  awaken  the  most  regaling  fragrance,  or  an 
effluvia  may  be  present  that  shall  give  the  most  foetid  and 
offensive  smells. 

The  organ  is  not  in  this  sense  necessarily  brought  in 


MATTER   AS    SENSIBLY   PERCEPTIBLE.  115 

contact  with  the  body  of  matter  itself,  as  in  touch  and 
taste,  but  only  in  contact  with  some  of  the  particles  sent 
off  from  the  body,  and  thus  there  can  be  no  opportunity 
given  for  constructing  shape  and  outline  by  the  smell,  and 
only  the  capacity  for  vaguely  estimating  distance  and  di 
rection  from  the  degrees  of  intensity  with  which  these  par 
ticles  may  strike  upon  and  impress  the  sense.  A  sufficient 
condition  is  however  here  supplied  for  all  the  perceptions 
that  can  be  gained  through  the  sense  of  smell. 

Sound. — With  a  sentient  organ  like  the  ear,  there  is  a 
capability  to  receive  impressions  from  material  nature  of  an 
entirely  different  kind  than  those  in  touch,  taste,  or  smell. 
The  organ  itself  is  expected  to  stand  wholly  and  often 
quite  distantly  separated  from  the  sonorous  body,  and  no 
part  of  the  material  substance  is  itself  to  flow  off  and  meet 
the  organ.  A  medium  must  be  supplied  in  the  elastic 
space-filling  force  which  constitutes  the  air,  and  which  sur 
rounds  both  the  organ  and  the  sonorous  body,  and  fills  the 
whole  space  between  them.  An  ear  in  vacuo  must  be 
Without  sound.  The  sonorous  point  is  at  the  ear,  but  the 
condition  given  for  the  sound  may  be  at  a  point  very  far 
removed  from  the  ear,  and  the  impulse  from  the  body 
which  puts  the  elastic  medium  in  undulation  must  make  the 
communication  from  the  body  to  the  organ,  and  thus  all 
the  conditions  for  the  appropriate  impression  and  sensation 
are  supplied. 

The  stroke  which  starts  the  impulse  and  the  solidity 
of  the  body  stricken,  and  the  rarer  or  denser  medium 
through  which  the  communication  is  made,  must  all  modify 
the  sensation  and  determine  the  variety  of  the  sound.  It 
must  thus  be  louder  or  weaker,  and  modified  through 


116        THE   ETERNAL    PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

manifold  tones  which  have  a  higher  or  lower  pitch.  The 
impulse  at  the  starting  point  in  the  sonorous  body  must 
perpetuate  itself  through  all  the  media,  and  the  impression 
must  be  determined  by  all  the  peculiarities  given  in  the 
whole  process.  In  this  way  an  occasion  is  manifest  for  all 
possible  sounds  through  the  matter  made  of  compounded 
space-filling  forces.  And  not  merely  the  direct  impulses, 
but  the  rebounding  and  reflected  waves  from  some  inter 
vening  sonorous  body,  will  occasion  all  that  is  to  determine 
the  perception  of  the  echoes  which  may  accompany  some 
original  sounds.  All  the  laws  of  acoustics  are  intelli 
gently  read  in  the  nature  of  these  space-filling  forces. 

Vision. — With  the  complicated  and  nicely  adapted 
organism  of  the  eye  given  in  conception,  it  may  be  a  clear 
insight  of  the  reason  that  matter,  as  a  space-filling  force, 
must  give  all  the  conditions  necessary  for  vision. 

Like  the  ear,  the  eye  also  is  adapted  to  receive  im 
pressions,  not  directly  from  contact  with  the  object,  but 
through  the  medium  of  that  which  may  lie  between  the 
organ  and  the  object.  This  intervening  medium  may  be  a 
direct  transmission  from  the  object,  or  some  force  that 
shall  put  in  oscillation  an  elastic  fluid  lying  between  the 
organ  and  object.  What  this  force  is,  will  hereafter  be 
determined,  but  it  is  sufficient  here  to  have  the  conception 
of  a  space,  about  an  organ  of  vision  and  an  object,  filled  up 
with  contiguous  antagonisms,  and  which  may  be  put  in 
motion  and  made  to  affect  the  organ  as  the  movement 
shall  be  modified  by  the  object.  The  medium  must  in  this 
way  give  its  impression  to  the  organ  from  the  object,  and 
this  impression,  whether  by  linear  or  oscillatory  impulse, 
must  be  perpetuated  to  the  retina,  and  through  the  optic 


MATTER   AS   STATICAL   AND   DYNAMICAL. 

nerve  to  the  sensorium,  and  this  must  give  all  the  condi 
tions  that  any  conceived  matter  may  present  for  distinct 
and  definite  perception. 

A  more  full  apprehension  of  the  force  which  is  to  make 
bodies  luminous,  will  give  a  more  complete  and  adequate 
insight  into  the  necessary  determinations  of  vision,  but 
enough  is  given  in  the  idea  of  a  space-filling  force,  to  ap 
prehend  that  this,  and  not  any  dead  matter,  must  be  the 
medium  of  perception  by  sight.  The  force  which  must 
move  such  inert  matter  would  be  all  that  could  impress 
the  organ,  and  when  we  have  the  force  given  in  idea,  the 
dead  matter  maybe  altogether  dispensed  with  as  wholly 
useless  and  irrelevant. 

Thus  it  is  that  the  whole  origination  and  endless  modi 
fications  of  our  phenomenal  experience,  which  is  communi 
cated  through  our  organs  of  sense,  have  their  sufficient 
conditions  in  the  one  idea  of  a  space-filling  force,  which 
may  vary  itself  in  intensity,  rapidity,  and  direction  of 
agency,  indefinitely.  This  substantial  matter  must  make 
its  impressions  upon  the  organs  according  to  its  condition 
ing  nature  and  their  organic  constitution,  and  must  thus 
reveal  itself  through  them  in  determinate  modes.  The 
forces  constitute  the  substantial  existence,  the  modes  of 
organic  impression  and  perception  constitute  the  phenom 
enal  or  qualitative  existence. 

5.  STATICS  AND  DYNAMICS.— The  sense-conception  of 
matter  can  by  no  possibility  admit  of  any  thing  static  or 
dynamic  in  nature.  The  supposed  matter  is  wholly  dead ; 
mere  inertia  ;  and  can  possess  nothing  by  which  it  may  be 
conceived  as  holding  itself  in  place  whereby  it  may  sustain 
any  thing,  nor  as  moving  from  its  place  whereby  it  might 


118       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

push  or  pull  any  thing.  If  it  upheld  any  thing,  as  a  static, 
it  must  itself  be  sustained  by  some  ab  extra  force,  and  if  it 
repelled  any  thing  as  a  dynamic,  it  must  itself  be  pressed 
by  a  force  not  its  own.  The  forces  introduced,  to  deter 
mine  the  dead  matter,  would  do  all  the  work  without  the 
superfluous  introduction  of  such  an  inert  extension. 

But  our  thought-conception  of  a  space-filling  force  as 
the  true  substantial  matter  involves  the  full  conception  of 
both  statics  and  dynamics.  Counteraction  in  equilibrium 
must  stand  self-fixed.  It  is  a  force  holding  itself  in  its 
place.  It  is  competent  to  sustain  a  pressure  equal  to  the 
energy  of  its  own  antagonism,  and  can  be  displaced  only 
when  the  intruding  body  shall  carry  with  it  the  energy  of 
a  more  intense  antagonism.  Thus  with  all  masses  of  mat 
ter.  In  any  form  or  magnitude,  there  is  necessarily  a  point 
towards  which  all  the  outlying  points  tend,  and  on  the 
force  in  which  all  the  forces  in  the  whole  mass  are  sus 
tained.  When  that  point  is  at  rest  all  the  other  points  are 
held  at  rest  by  it,  and  when  its  vis  inertice  is  overcome,  all 
the  forces  in  the  other  points  of  the  mass  will  also  yield 
their  vis  inertice.  A  static  force  is  that  antagonism  which 
holds  itself  at  rest  in  its  balanced  counteraction. 

A  dynamic  force  goes  to  the  overcoming  of  a  static. 
It  may  draw  or  expel,  but  it  goes  to  the  removing  another 
force  at  rest,  or  to  the  retarding  or  accelerating  another 
force  in  motion.  Should  the  dynamic  not  be  suflicient  to 
overcome  the  static,  still,  in  so  far  as  its  intensity  of  antag 
onism  goes  toward  this,  it  is  thus  far  dynamic  though  the 
static  does  not  yield  to  it.  And  this  is  involved  in  the 
very  conception  of  matter  as  a  space-filling  force.  The 
counteraction  in  any  point  is  static  when  in  equilibrium, 


MATTER   AS  -STATICAL   AND   DYNAMICAL.  119 

but  when  the  agency  in  one  direction  is  more  energetic 
than  that  in  the  other,  though  there  is  still  counteraction, 
yet  must  the  weaker  yield  to  the  more  energetic  and  the 
whole  counter-agency  perpetually  displace  itself,  in  the 
direction  of  the  working  of  the  more  strenuous  agency. 
Such  perpetually  moving  space-filling  force  may  impinge 
upon  another  force  and  impel,  or  may  be  attached  to 
another  force  and  draw,  and  thus  in  any  direction,  the 
antagonist  force  in  motion  is  a  dynamic,  either  of  impul 
sion  or  tension.  A  dynamic  either  drives  or  draws. 

It  is  also  obvious  that  a  static  is  nothing  in  nature  with 
out  a  dynamic,  for  were  there  no  push  nor  pull  there  could 
be  no  holding  of  place  by  an  equal  antagonism ;  and  so  also 
that  there  can  be  no  dynamic  in  nature  that  has  not  also 
its  static,  for  no  push  nor  pull  could  be  without  a  stand 
point.  In  nature,  there  is  a  complete  sophism  of  the 
va-repov  TrpoVfpov;  and  were  there  no  way  of  attaining  to 
the  supernatural,  both  the  perpetuation  of  rest  and  the  be 
ginning  of  motion  would  be  absurdities ;  for  you  must  first 
have  your  motion  in  the  very  act  of  holding  at  rest,  and 
you  must  first  have  your  rest  as  the  hold-point  or  spring 
board  of  your  moving  some  other  body.  The  only  way 
out  of  such  an  antinomy,  between  nature  in  the  understand 
ing  and  nature  in  the  sense,  is  the  apprehension  of  a  super 
natural  in  the  reason.  An  absolute  spirit  has  the  spring  to 
an  originating  act  in  himself,  in  that  he  is  ethical  law  in  his 
spiritual  excellency  to  govern  himself.  He  may  originate 
action,  directly  from  the  claims  as  known  to  be  due  from 
himself  to  himself.  He  has  an  ethical  stand-point  and 
spring-board,  and  can  thus  put  forth  his  spiritual  act  in 
counteraction  and  make  a  beginning.  Spiritual  activity 


120       THE  ETERNAL  PRINCIPLES   OF  THE  UNIVERSE. 

put  in  counter-agency  makes  a  physical  stand-point ;  takes 
a  position  and  holds  it ;  and  in  that  a  static  force  already 
is,  from  which  all  physical  mechanics  may  go  out  in  ope 
ration. 

6.  PRINCIPLES  OF  MOTION. — If  the  mind  be  filled  only 
with  the  sense-conception  of  matter  as  mere  inertia,  then 
can  there  be  no  apprehension  of  any  principles  of  motion, 
and  all  its  laws  must  be  arbitrarily  imposed.  The  very 
laws  are  mere  facts,  and  for  aught  we  can  know,  they  might 
have  been  any  other  way  as  well  as  the  present.  With 
such  a  conception  of  matter,  it  was  a  toilsome  and  tedious 
process  to  find  how  in  fact  matter  had  been  made  to  move, 
and  then  generalize  the  facts  as  far  as  possible  and  call 
them  laws  of  motion.  Dead  matter  cannot  move  any  way, 
nor  energize  at  all,  and  thus  no  thinking  about  matter,  no 
insight  of  it,  can  get  any  motion,  much  less  any  laws  of 
motion,  out  of  it.  The  mind  can  only  learn  by  experience 
how  matter  does  move,  and  then  generalize  these  facts 
and  say  they  are  laws  of  motion.  In  the  true  substantial 
matter,  as  space-filling  force,  the  eternal  principles  of  mo 
tion  are  already  given,  and  may  be  found. 

We  will  take  the  laws  of  motion  as  experimentally  at 
tained,  and  we  may  successively  see,  that  the  immutable 
principles  of  space-filling  forces  will  necessarily  determine 
every  law  of  motion  to  be  as  it  has  been  found  that  it  is. 
It  is  thus  truly  a  principle  in  matter,  and  not  merely  a  law 
arbitrarily  constituted. 

The  first  Principle  of  motion  is,  that  it  must  be  recti 
lineal  and  uniform.— This  is  a  necessary  determination  of 
the  reason  in  its  insight  into  the  grounds  of  force  from 
whence  all  locomotion  must  be  generated.  When  two 


PRINCIPLES    OF   MOTION.  121 

simple  agencies  counterwork,  the  result  must  be  a  resting 
against  each  other  in  static  equilibrium,  if  the  countervail 
ing  activities  are  of  equal  energies.  If  one  activity  be  of 
greater  energy,  it  will  be  counteracted  by  the  other  to  the 
amount  of  its  energy,  but  the  excess  of  energy  in  the  for- 
mer  having  nothing  to  balance  it  will  forbid  that  it  should 
be  holden  in  any  one  point ;  and  yet,  as  the  weaker  activity 
continues  its  antagonism  to  the  amount  of  its  energy,  there 
is  a  perpetual  space-filling  force,  and  which  cannot  be  hold- 
en  in  any  one  point  of  space.  The  result  must  be  a  constant 
force  which  cannot  abide  in  any  one  position,  and  is  thus 
the  idea  of  the  generation  of  motion.  A  space-filling  force, 
which  cannot  continue  in  any  one  point  of  space,  is  a  space 
filling  force  successively  occupying  different  spaces,  and  is 
thus  matter  moving.  Let  these  activities  continue  their 
respective  energies  in  counterworking  unchanged,  and  the 
force  which  balances  the  weaker  energy  will  make  its  es 
sential  matter  to  be  a  permanent  existence,  but  the  excess 
of  energy  will  make  this  permanent  matter  to  be  perpetu 
ally  changing  its  place.  The  motion  must  be  incessant. 
But  this  motion  is  generated  only  in  the  excess  of  the 
greater  energy,  and  that  is  perpetually  in  its  one  line  of 
antagonism  to  the  weaker  activity,  and  must,  therefore, 
determine  the  motion  to  be  in  its  own  invariable  direction. 
The  motion  must  be  rectilineal.  And  this  excess  of  energy 
in  the  greater  over  the  less  is  invariable  in  degree,  which 
must  secure  the  passing  from  point  to  point  to  be  in  all 
points  at  the  same  rate.  The  motion  must  be  uniform. 

This  will  be  true  not  merely  of  one  point  of  space-filling 
force,  but  must  hold  invariably  true  of  any  aggregate 
amount  of  space-filling  forces  in  a  body.  If  all  the  points 


122       THE   ETEENAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

of  force  be  invariable  in  their  comparative  energies,  the  one 
principle  must  include  all.  And  they  must  all  move  inces 
santly,  rectilineally,  and  uniformly. 

And  this  principle  must  equally  determine  the  trans 
mission  of  motion  by  impulse.  If  any  amount  of  space 
filling  forces  occupy  their  places  at  rest  in  their  balanced 
action,  and  other  forces  moving  come  in  contact  in  the  line 
of  their  balanced  antagonisms,  the  moving  forces  just 
bring  their  excess  of  energies  in  their  direction  of  motion 
to  the  forces  at  rest,  and  add  this  excess  to  the  activities 
working  in  the  forces  at  rest  in  the  same  direction,  and 
thus  make  them  to  have  the  same  disparity  of  energy  and 
in  the  same  line  of  working,  and  thus  the  forces  at  rest 
must  take  on  the  same  incessant  motion,  and  in  the  same 
right-lined  direction  and  uniform  progression.  And  if  the 
forces  moving  come  in  contact  with  other  forces  moving, 
by  reason  of  greater  velocity,  the  excess  of  energy  on  the 
one  side  of  the  antagonism  in  the  swifter  body  will  add  its 
greater  degree  to  the  excess  in  the  slower  body  that  is  less 
than  its  own,  and  this  must  quicken  its  motion ;  but  hence 
forth  that  quickened  motion  must  be  incessant,  right-lined, 
and  uniform.  The  constant  excess  in  its  own  direction 
must  ever  determine  to  a  rectilineal  and  uniform  motion. 

The  second  Principle  of  Motion  will  find  its  expression 
in  the  following  formula — that  motion  which  any  superin 
duced  force  would  give  must  be  compounded  with  the 
motion  which  the  forces  already  have.  This  will  apply 
universally,  and  introduce  a  new  principle  beyond  that 
which  determined  the  motion  in  the  former  case.  The 
principle  in  the  first  case  was,  that  the  more  energetic 
activity  must  move  the  unbalanced  force  directly  and 


PRINCIPLES   OF   MOTION.  123 

uniformly  in  its  own  line.  There  is  now  to  be  a  combina 
tion  of  forces,  and  there  must  therefore  be  a  principle 
modifying  both  the  old  uniformity  and  the  direction.  An 
other  degree  of  excess  in  the  antagonisms  is  given,  and  the 
old  uniformity  cannot  continue ;  also  an  activity  transverse 
to  the  old  antagonism  is  contemplated,  and  there  cannot 
be  the  rectilineal  movement  before  the  greater  energy. 
Both  the  degrees  and  the  directions  of  the  forces  must  be 
compounded. 

We  take  any  matter  moving  under  the  control  of  the 
first  principle  of  uniformity,  in  the  line  of  the  excess  of  the 
antagonist  activity,  and  now  superinduce  a  new  force.  It 
may  be  applied  in  the  following  directions  and  degrees  pre 
cisely  in  the  line  of  the  old  antagonisms.  It  may  be  in  the 
direction  of  the  weaker  energy  of  the  moving  forces,  and 
yet  not  sufficient  to  balance  the  excess  of  energy  in  the 
stronger ;  and  it  is  then  clear  in  the  insight  of  reason,  that 
it  must  retard  the  movement  by  just  the  degree  of  energy 
added  to  the  resistance  of  this  weaker  side  of  the  antago 
nism.  If  sufficient  to  just  equal  and  balance  the  excess,  it 
must  wholly  suspend  all  motion.  If  sufficient  to  give  to  the 
weaker  side  of  the  antagonism  a  stronger  activity,  the  ex 
cess  of  energy  changes  sides  and  the  old  motion  is  not 
merely  suspended  but  must  be  directly  retrograde.  If  the 
superinduction  be  on  the  side  of  the  more  energetic  activity, 
there  must  be  an  acceleration  to  just  the  degree  in  which 
the  old  excess  of  energy  has  been  augmented.  In  all  the 
above  cases,  it  is  manifest  that  the  old  motion  is  to  be 
compounded  with  the  new  motion  given,  inasmuch  as  these 
compound  motions  are  the  resultants  necessarily  of  the 
combining  of  the  old  and  new  forces,  and  thereby  modify- 


124:       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

ing  the  excess  of  energy  which  generates  the  motion, 
though  there  can  in  these  cases  be  no  change  of  direction. 

But  the  superinduced  force  may  also  be  applied  trans 
versely  to  the  old  antagonism.  In  such  case,  there  can  be 
no  balancing  of  the  antagonism,  nor  direct  reversal  of  the 
excess ;  no  merely  increasing  of  the  weaker  nor  the  stronger 
activities,  and  thus  no  compounding  of  the  forces  and  their 
movements  can  have  any  thing  to  do  with  the  merely  uni 
form  rate  of  movement,  but  will  necessarily  modify  the 
direction,  inasmuch  as  this  new  transverse  force  will  not 
admit  of  the  old  excess  of  energy  to  go  any  way  up  or 
down  its  old  line  of  working.  This  old  excess  of  energy 
will  continue  in  its  old  direction,  and  the  superinduced 
force  will  come  and  continue  in  some  transverse  direction, 
and  the  first  principle  of  motion  can  have  no  unhindered 
application.  The  movement  cannot  be  in  the  line  of  the 
old  more  energetic  antagonism,  for  the  superinduced  force 
now  thwarts  this  by  cutting  across  its  line ;  and  no  more 
can  the  movement  be  in  the  line  of  the  new  force,  because 
the  old  excess  of  energy  continues  to  work  in  its  former 
direction,  and  must  thwart  the  superinduced  force. 

This  new  force  may  come  in  any  direction  on  either 
side  of  the  line  of  the  old  antagonisms,  but  in  any  way,  it 
must  be  in  the  same  place  with  the  old  activities,  and  meet 
them  in  their  common  point  of  counteraction.  That  super 
induced  force  is  thus  a  third  activity,  meeting  the  antago 
nist  activities  in  their  point  of  contact,  and  interfering  in 
the  results  of  their  working,  and  the  motion  induced  must 
be  determined  by  the  compounding  of  all  these  activities. 
The  excess  of  the  antagonist  energy,  and  thus  the  motion, 
was  before  on  one  side  and  in  one  direction  of  the  antag- 


PRINCIPLES   OF   MOTIOX.  125 

onism,  and  the  new  force  tends  to  move  in  its  own  direc 
tion,  and  they  can  now  only  neutralize  and  balance  them 
selves  in  some  common  point  between  them.  That  common 
point  will  give  its  excess  of  energy  as  a  unit,  and  move  the 
force  or  molecule  of  matter  accordingly,  and  the  perpetua 
tion  of  the  activities  must  perpetuate  the  points  in  which 
they  balance  each  other,  and  the  motion  must  be  through 
these  points  successively  from  one  to  another,  and  thus  the 
line  of  motion  must  be  through  the  points  in  which  the 
compound  agencies  balance  each  other. 

The  rate  of  movement,  and  the  direction  which  the 
excess  of  energy  on  one  side  of  the  antagonism  has  engen 
dered,  being  given,  and  then  the  rate  of  movement,  and 
direction  which  must  be  engendered  in  the  excess  oi 
energy  on  one  side  of  the  force  to  be  superinduced,  being 
known,  we  must  compound  the  two  after  their  respective 
ratios  and  directions,  and  that  must  be  both  the  direction 
and  velocity  of  the  newly-acquired  movement.  Geomet 
rically,  it  is  manifest,  this  compounding  of  the  excess  of 
energies  in  the  two  forces  must  give  its  line  between  their 
directions,  and  dividing  the  angle  their  lines  of  direction 
may  make.  If  of  equal  excess  of  energy,  and  moving  at 
right  angles  to  each  other,  their  compound  must  be  a  bi 
section  of  the  right  angle  between  them ;  and  if  of  equal 
excess  of  energy  but  moving  in  direct  antagonism,  their 
composition  must  be  in  a  line  perpendicular  to  their  com 
mon  line  of  antagonism.  If  of  unequal  excess  of  energies 
their  composition  must  give  the  line  dividing  their  angle  in 
the  inverse  ratio  of  the  excess  of  energy,  viz.,  the  greater 
excess  to  have  proportionally  the  less  space,  and  the  less 


126       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

excess  to  have  proportionally  the  greater  space,  on  their 
respective  sides  of  the  divided  angle  between  them. 

This  principle  of  compounding  the  motions  of  two 
forces,  which  are  generated  by  their  respective  excess  of 
energies  on  one  side  of  their  antagonist  activities,  is  ap 
plicable  to  any  number  of  superinduced  forces,  and  any 
variety  in  their  excess  of  energies.  In  each  case,  the  old 
motion  must  be  given,  and  the  resulting  motion  from  the 
composition  of  the  first  superinduced  force  must  be  found, 
and  this  will  then  become  the  given  motion.  This  must 
then  be  compounded  with  the  motion  the  second  superin 
duced  force  would  secure  as  its  resultant ;  and  this  is  then 
a  given  motion  to  be  compounded  with  a  third  superin- 
duction ;  and  thus  onward  to  any  number.  The  resulting 
motion  must  ever  be  the  compound  of  that  which  either 
force  applied  in  succession  would  give,  together  with  that 
which  had  before  been  given  in  the  original,  or  any  aggre 
gate  of  superinduced  forces.  The  first  principle  determines 
the  motion  from  the  perpetuity  and  constant  direction  of 
the  excess  of  energy  which  generates  it ;  and  the  second 
principle  determines  the  motion  from  the  compounding  of 
the  aggregate  excess  of  energies  in  all  the  forces  that  con 
spire  to  generate  it.  The  law  is  necessarily  given  in  the 
eternal  principle  read  by  the  insight  of  reason. 

The  third  Principle  of  motion  may  be  expressed  in  the 
formula,  that  the  rate  of  motion  will  be  as  the  force  moving 
exceeds  the  force  moved.  This  is  perhaps  more  technically 
given  by  saying  the  velocity  will  be  as  the  dynamical  ex 
ceeds  the  statical  force.  The  static  force  is  the  intensity 
of  energy  with  which  the  antagonism  holds  itself  in  po 
sition  ;  and  the  dynamic  force  is  the  intensity  of  energy  in 


PRINCIPLES    OF   MOTION.  127 

one  side  of  the  antagonism,  by  which  that  antagonism  is 
carried  out  of  its  position.  In  the  static,  both  activities 
equally  energize  and  resist  each  other,  and  the  degree  of 
the  energies  which  rest  against  each  other  is  the  measure 
of  the  force.  In  the  dynamic,  both  activities  energize  and 
resist,  and  thus  constitute  a  force ;  but  one  activity  is  of 
superior  energy  and  thus  perpetually  displaces  this  force, 
and  the  degree  of  this  excess  of  energy  is  the  dynamic 
force.  These  may  be  of  greater  intensity  in  each  point  of 
a  small  body,  so  as  to  equal  a  less  intensity  in  the  many 
points  in  a  large  body ;  and  thus  it  must  follow  that  it  is 
not  the  volume  but  the  density  of  matter  that  resists 
motion,  and  that  it  is  not  either  the  volume  or  the  density 
of  matter,  but  the  excess  of  energy  on  one  side,  that  over 
comes  rest. 

In  the  first  principle  we  had  uniformity  and  direction 
of  motion ;  in  the  second  we  had  variation  from  original 
uniformity  and  direction ;  and  here  in  the  third,  we  seek 
the  degree  of  motion,  or  the  velocity.  Eesistance  to 
motion  is  as  the  density ;  and  resistance  to  rest,  or  capacity 
to  generate  motion,  is  as  the  excess  of  energy  on  one  side 
of  the  antagonism,  and  this  excess  of  energy  must  be  most 
in  the  densest  bodies  moved;  it  is  thus  mainly  with  the 
density  of  matter  that  we  need  here  to  be  conversant,  and 
to  find  in  this  the  ground  for  the  determining  principle  of 
the  motion  we  seek. 

The  intensity  of  antagonism  in  any  point  of  force  is  its 
measure  to  resist  motion.  If  this  intensity  be  small,  a 
small  measure  of  excess  in  the  energy  of  one  activity  over 
the  other  will  generate  motion ;  and  if  this  intensity  be 
great,  a  greater  excess  of  energy  on  one  side  of  the  activi- 


128       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

ties  must  be  necessary  to  generate  motion.  If  then  one 
point  of  force  is  to  move  another  point  of  force,  the  former 
must  have  one  of  two  prerogatives ;  either  a  greater  inten 
sity,  and  then  when  just  moved  its  impulse  will  overcome 
the  intensity  of  the  latter  and  displace  it,  or,  a  strong  ex 
cess  of  energy  in  one  side  of  its  activities  that  may  move 
to  a  violent  impulse,  and  then,  though  of  less  intensity,  the 
strenuous  movement  of  the  former  may  displace  the  latter. 
In  either  case,  the  principle  is  at  once  seen  which  deter 
mines  this  third  case  of  motion.  The  force  moved  is  as  its 
static  intensity ;  the  force  moving  is  as  its  static  intensity 
combined  with  its  excess  of  energy  on  one  side,  and  how 
ever  this  be  made  up  so  as  to  exceed  the  force  of  the 
former,  or  force  moved,  whether  by  more  static  intensity 
or  more  excess  of  energy  in  one  activity,  when  thus  ex 
ceeding  it  must  generate  motion. 

And  the  rate  of  motion,  or  velocity,  must  be  propor 
tioned  to  this  excess  of  dynamic  over  the  static  force.  The 
least  degree  beyond  equilibration  of  intensity  must  move ; 
and  the  augmentation  of  preponderance  must  so  much 
more  move,  and  thus  as  nothing  but  this  excess  generates 
motion  and  all  the  excess  generates  its  own  measure  of 
motion,  the  degree  of  motion,  or  velocity,  must  be  as  the 
moving  exceeds  the  moved  intensity  offeree. 

And  this  is  manifestly  applicable  to  all  cases.  If  one 
body,  or  aggregate  of  forces,  is  to  move  another,  the 
points  of  static  antagonism  are  all  to  be  overcome ;  and 
the  points  of  static  antagonism,  in  the  body  that  is  the 
mover,  all  give  their  intensity  and  their  excess  of  energy  on 
one  side  of  the  static  antagonism,  that  they  may  conspire 
to  the  moving ;  and  thus  the  aggregate  forces  are  each  as 


PRINCIPLES   OF   MOTION.  129 

one  force,  and  the  whole  body  moving  may  be  called  the 
force  moving,  and  the  whole  body  moved  may  be  called 
the  force  moved,  and  then  the  third  principle  of  motion  is 
directly  expressed  by  them.  The  true  idea  of  static  and 
dynamic  forces  contains  the  principle  which  necessarily  de 
termines  this  third  case  of  motion. 

In  this  third  principle  of  motion  there  is  involved  the 
conception  of  momentum,  which  on  account  of  its  wide 
application  in  physical  science,  it  is  important  should  be 
made  clear  and  exact.  In  the  body  moving,  its  power  of 
impulse  or  capacity  to  act  on  other  bodies  is  an  aggregate 
of  force  from  two  sources.  It  has  received  the  excess  of 
intensity  over  its  own  in  the  body  moving  it,  and  this  now 
becomes  one  part  of  its  force  to  strike  and  move  another 
body.  This  is  measured  by  its  own  velocity,  for  it  is  this 
excess  that  has  made  the  whole  movement,  and  we  may 
thus  represent  the  force  acquired  by  the  velocity  imparted. 
But  its  measure  of  intensity  that  it  originally  had,  and 
which  had  neutralized  just  an  equal  amount  of  intensity  in 
the  body  which  impinged  upon  it,  has  not  at  all  been  anni 
hilated.  It  neutralized  its  own  measure  in  the  other  body 
to  produce  motion,  and  left  only  the  excess  to  pass  over 
into  the  moved  body,  but  itself  remained  in,  and  goes  along 
with,  and  indeed  is  the  very  essence  of,  the  moved  body, 
and  this  original  intensity  it  now  has  also,  wherewith  to 
strike  and  move  other  bodies.  This  original  intensity  of 
antagonism  is  its  quantity  of  matter. 

The  aggregate  offeree  in  the  excess  imparted  from  the 
moving  body,  and  which  is  represented  by  the  acquired 
velocity  together  with  its  own  original  intensity  of  antago 
nism,  and  which  is  its  quantity  of  matter,  now  constitute 


130       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

the  capability  the  body  possesses  to  generate  motion  in 
some  third  body ;  and  this  whole  aggregate  of  motion-gen 
erating  force  is  what  we  comprehend  under  the  term 
momentum.  It  is  commonly  said  to  be  compounded  of  the 
velocity  and  quantity  of  matter,  but  it  should  not  thereby 
be  understood  that  mere  motion  has  itself  any  moving 
force,  or  capacity  to  generate  motion,  but  only  that  the 
motion  is  the  index  of  the  moving  force  which  generated 
it,  and  which  has  been  transferred  to  it  from  the  force 
moving  it. 

The  principle  involved  in  virtual  velocities,  where  the 
less  quantity  of  matter  balances  the  greater,  or  more  gen 
erally  in  all  cases  of  equilibrium,  refers  at  once  to  the  con 
ception  of  momentum.  The  less  force  balances  the  greater, 
because  the  motion  of  the  less  would  be  the  more  rapid  in 
the  inverse  ratio  of  its  comparative  weight.  The  momen 
ta  of  the  greater  and  smaller  weight  are  equal,  and  though 
there  is  now  rest,  yet  is  there  what  is  termed  virtual  mo 
tion,  for  the  forces  are  so  arranged  that  if  moved,  the  ex 
cess  of  velocity  in  one  must  compensate  for  the  excess  in 
intensity  of  the  other.  All  static  forces  have  this  virtual 
motion,  viz.,  a  tendency  to  move  while  reciprocally  bal 
anced. 

These  same  principles  for  the  above  cases  of  motion, 
and  the  conception  of  momenta  and  virtual  velocities  de 
termine  all  the  facts  in  the  pressure  of  fluids  in  Hydrostatics, 
Pneumatics,  &c.,  as  also  in  the  revolutions  of  planetary 
bodies,  and  may  in  the  sequel  be  seen  to  condition  and 
thereby  to  give  law  to  all  the  natural  operations  of  magnet 
ism,  electricity,  and  indeed  to  be  the  very  nature  and 
essence  of  the  force  of  gravity  itself.  The  one  simple  con- 


CREATION   A   NATURE.  131 

ception  of  a  space-filling  force,  as  an  antagonism  of  simple 
spiritual  activities,  is  the  source  in  which  the  reason,  with 
out  experiment  or  discursive  conclusions  in  judgment,  by 
its  own  insight  may  read  the  necessary  conditions  and  im 
mutable  laws  of  nature.  Force  itself  is  a  fact ;  a  thing 
made ;  and  in  its  making  the  very  essence  of  the  material 
world  is  created ;  but  the  immutable  and  necessary  princi 
ples  which  must  determine  all  its  working  were  not  made ; 
they  lay  uncreated  and  eternal  in  the  bosom  of  the  Abso 
lute  Reason,  and  were  the  grand  archetypes  which  guided 
his  creative  hand  in  first  setting  the  circuit  of  the  heavens 
on  the  face  of  the  primeval  abyss. 

7.  CREATION  A  NATURE. — Nature,  natura,  (a  nascor,) 
is  a  birth,  an  outspringing,  a  growth ;  and  includes  the  con 
ception  of  an  existence  that  has  a  beginning,  and  which 
from  the  beginning  continually  grows  out,  or  develops 
itself,  by  a  successive  series  of  changes  which  manifest 
themselves  in  new  phenomena  or  events.  It  is  a  perpetual 
succession  of  new  births  from  itself.  All  these  outgrowths 
were  originally  in  the  created  existence,  and  virtually  or 
potentially  had  their  being  in  the  first  moment  of  creation, 
and  necessarily  develop  themselves  in  their  order  as  the 
created  existence  works  on  before  the  inner  force  of  which 
it  is  constituted.  It  is  applied  properly  to  every  created 
individual  thing,  inasmuch  as  each  separate  thing  has  its 
own  peculiarly  constituted  forces  which  make  it  to  be  what 
it  is,  and  give  to  it  its  own  essential  identity,  and  which 
secure  that  it  must  develop  itself  after  the  conditions  of  its 
original  constitution.  Hence  we  say  of  any  particular 
thing,  that  it  grows,  or  works,  or  moves  in  any  way,  ac 
cording  to  its  own  nature.  And  as  each  constituted  or 


132        THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

created  thing  has  its  nature,  so  all  creation  is,  in  the  same 
way,  spoken  of  as  having  a  nature.  The  universal  ongoing 
of  cause  and  effect  is  but  the  successive  birth  and  growth 
of  that  which  was  already  constituted  and  necessitated  in 
the  first  creation,  and  we  thus  speak  of  it  as  the  order  of 
nature.  The  word  has  no  proper  application  to  that  which 
is  not  continually  passing  through  an  ordered  series  of 
births,  according  to  the  conditions  imposed  upon  it  at  its 
creation.  That  which  was  not  created,  or  constituted  of 
such  conditioned  forces,  has  not  a  nature,  but  must  be 
wholly  supernatural.  Of  all  created  existence  we  may  say 
in  general,  it  is  Nature. 

The  propriety  and  truth  of  this  is  seen  by  the  eye  of 
reason,  in  the  Idea  so  far  attained  of  what  creation  is.  An 
antagonism  of  simple  activities,  which  takes  and  holds  po 
sition  and  fills  space,  and  thus  constitutes  that  force  which 
is  the  essence  of  matter,  combined  with  a  diremptive  force 
that  may  work  in  it,  has  already  within  itself  a  nature,  and 
by  its  creation  it  already  exists  under  conditions  and  laws 
which  determine  both  that  it  must,  and  how  it  must,  pro 
duce  itself  onward  in  perpetual  outgrowths,  until  its  whole 
inner  energy  is  exhausted.  The  principles  of  motion  and 
momenta  are  principles  older  than  matter,  and  as  unmade 
themselves  may  be  said  to  be  put  into  matter  when  it  is 
made,  and  thus  give  to  it  a  nature  which  wholly  conditions 
it,  and  which  enstamp  upon  it  its  whole  history,  to  the 
penetrating  eye  of  reason,  before  that  nature  has  gone  a 
step  onward  in  the  march  of  cause  and  event.  Nothing 
can  come  out  that  was  not  originally  put  in,  and  what  was 
originally  put  in  must  come  out  in  the  very  order  of  the 
constituted  conditions.  In  nature,  non  datur  casus,  i.  e., 


CREATION    A   NATURE.  133 

events  without  cause ;  non  datur  fatum,  i.  e.,  events  with 
out  a  conditioned  cause ;  non  datur  inertia,  i.  e.,  a  cessation 
of  working ;  non  datur  saltus,  i.  e.,  a  leaping  over  some  link 
in  the  series ;  and  non  datur  vacuum,  i.  &,  a  chasm  or  void 
within  her  sphere,  where  there  is  utter  emptiness. 

This  does  not  exclude  the  repeated  interpositions  of  the 
Creator.  New  creations  put  into  nature  from  a  source 
above  nature,  and  new  modifications  of  the  old  by  the 
absolute  Maker  of  nature,  have  within  their  conception 
nothing  unreasonable.  Creation  may  be  finished  by  any 
number  and  distance  of  intervals  between  the  working,  and 
when  finished  may  receive  any  number  and  variety  of 
miraculous  interventions  from  its  author,  according  to  hip 
good  pleasure.  But  nature  herself  can  originate  nothing, 
and  only  bring  out  that  with  which  she  teemed  on  the  very 
morning  of  her  creation.  If  the  Creator  originate  new  ex 
istences  in  nature,  as  Absolute  Reason  he  will  have  reasons 
for  it,  and  will  superinduce  the  new  upon  the  old  in  con 
formity  of  natures  between  the  new  and  old,  so  that  the 
last  day's  work  shall  still  make  one  harmonious  nature  in 
combination  with  the  works  of  all  other  days  of  creation ; 
and  the  whole  completed  work  shall  as  truly  fill  out  and 
equal  the  eternal  archetype,  as  if  it  had  sprung  up  at  once 
and  instantaneously  under  his  creating  hand.  Thus  all 
within  and  successively  coming  out  below  the  point  where 
force,  as  matter,  fills  space  and  grows  on  in  time  will  be 
nature;  a  perpetual  springing  out  from  the  old  stock  of 
new  modes  of  existence ;  but  all  above  that  point  will  be 
wholly  unconditioned  by  that  which  is  within  and  below, 
and  will  remain  forever  the  supernatural ;  the  unborn, 
changeless,  and  absolutely  independent  I  AM.  All  within 


134       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

nature  we  may  term  the  physical,  and  all  above  nature  the 


8.  THE  MATERIAL  CREATION  A  SPHERE. — If  a  force  be 
steadily  applied  to  a  heavy  body,  it  will  at  first  be  still  mo 
tionless,  but  a  continued  strain  at  length  puts  the  whole  in 
motion.  If  I  crowd  against  a  boat  floating  by  the  wharf, 
I  must  perpetuate  the  pressure  for  some  considerable  time 
before  the  boat  will  move.  Each  point  in  the  body  to  be 
moved  is  a  static  force,  holding  itself  in  its  position  by  its 
own  antagonism,  and  the  force  apph'ed  must  pass  from  the 
point  of  immediate  pressure  successively  through  every 
point  to  the  most  remote,  and  it  is  only  when  the  last  is 
reached  and  overcome  that  the  whole  mass  can  be  ejected 
from  its  place.  The  force  has  been  constantly  going  in  to 
the  mass,  but  it  has  been  apparently  dormant,  or  truly 
latent,  until  the  whole  pressure  upon  the  centre  of  the  body 
has  been  overcome,  and  then  the  mass  moves  off  together. 

If  I  press  two  rigid  metallic  rods  together  at  their  ends, 
the  force  does  not  continue  merely  at  the  point  of  contact, 
but  propagates  itself  through  every  point  of  both  rods  to 
my  hands  at  the  opposite  ends,  and  then,  though  every 
point  in  the  rods  has  been  pervaded  by  the  applied  force, 
yet  do  not  these  points  move  from  their  positions;  because 
the  middle  position  at  the  point  of  contact  in  the  rods  has 
been  equally  pressed  in  the  direction  of  the  rods,  and  the 
balanced  counteraction  has  kept  that  point  a  static  in  the 
direction  of  the  force;  and  also  the  rigidity  of  the  rods  at 
their  points  of  contact  has  been  greater  than  the  lateral  pres 
sure  in  the  compounding  of  the  energies  at  the  middle  point, 
and  thus  the  middle  point  could  not  divide  itself  every  way 
and  permit  the  positions  in  the  lines  of  the  rods  to  range 


MATERIAL   CREATION   A   SPHERE.  135 

themselves  every  way  about  the  middle  point  as  a  centre. 
In  other  words,  the  force  in  the  direction  of  the  rods  has 
been  balanced,  and  the  adhesion  of  the  metal  has  not  been 
overcome  so  as  to  permit  the  second  law  of  motion  to  send 
off  positions  in  any  compounded  direction.  But  if  I  should 
procure  a  complete  fusion  of  the  metal  in  the  two  rods  at 
the  point  of  contact,  and  thus  dissolve  the  rigidity,  the 
pressure  in  the  direction  of  the  rods  would  permit  that  each 
should  be  turned  back  upon  itself  by  the  other,  and  also, 
in  the  compounding  of  the  energies,  that  each  should  send 
off  positions  every  way  on  each  side  of  the  middle  point, 
and  the  result  of  the  pressure  of  my  hands,  in  crowding  the 
rods  together  at  their  ends,  would  be  an  accumulation  of 
the  metal  from  both  in  a  rude  globe  of  molten  matter  about 
the  point  of  contact. 

A  careful  application  of  the  principles  of  motion,  or 
rather  the  same  insight  into  the  principles  of  force  which 
determine  the  laws  of  motion,  will  detect  the  very  lines  in 
which  the  molecules  of  melted  matter  must  move  off  from 
the  centre,  and  the  very  positions  they  must  ultimately 
assume,  and  can  thus  beforehand  determine  that  a  globe, 
and  not  any  other  form,  must  necessarily  impress  itself 
upon  the  matter  that  shall  accumulate  about  any  point  of 
simple  counter-agency.  For  it  is  to  be  carefully  noted, 
that  not  the  force  which  is  the  component  essence  of  the 
matter  itself  in  the  metallic  rods  is  to  be  here  regarded,  but 
the  newly  applied  force  which  generates  the  motion  that 
arranges  the  particles  of  matter  into  a  globe.  Were  there 
nothing  but  the  forces  acting  in  the  matter,  whether  the 
rods  were  rigid  or  molten,  every  point  would  be  and  re 
main  a  static,  and  the  whole  mass  would  be  at  rest  in  its 


136       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

original  position.  The  newly  applied  force  is  a  distinct 
thing  from  the  force  as  the  matter  to  which  it  is  applied, 
and  if  this  were  as  palpable  to  the  sense  as  the  matter  it 
moves,  we  should  at  once  notice  the  force  as  the  mover, 
and  not  the  metallic  forces  as  the  moved.  The  metallic 
matter,  as  palpable  to  sense,  is  used  by  the  force  applied  to 
it,  and  which  applied  force,  as  working  only  in  the  matter, 
is  impalpable  to  sense,  and  thus  the  palpable  matter  is 
really  only  the  index  of  what  the  impalpable  force  is  doing ; 
the  latter  registers  itself  and  thereby  manifests  itself  in  the 
former,  and  it  is  really  only  the  latter  that  we  regard  and 
wish  to  follow  in  its  work,  for  this  is  truly  the  sphere-form 
ing  agency. 

This  may  be  more  fully  illustrated,  and  the  insight  of 
the  reason  assisted  more  clearly  to  apprehend  it  by  taking 
two  analogous  cases,  in  one  of  which  the  matter  is  apparent 
to  the  sense,  and  in  the  other  the  matter  does  not  become 
apparent.  A  stone  drops  into  the  lake,  and  as  it  sinks  from 
the  surface  it  displaces  its  bulk  of  water  and  then  passes 
from  that  position  to  a  lower,  displacing  again  an  equal 
bulk,  and  thus  successively  till  it  rests  upon  the  bottom. 
The  separating  and  coming  together  of  the  water  suddenly 
through  the  vacuum  left  by  the  descending  stone  makes  a 
new  counteraction,  and  is  truly  the  introduction  of  an 
other  force  into  the  essential  forces  which  constitute  the 
water  itself  in  the  lake.  Now  this  new  force  registers 
itself  at  once  in  the  placid  surface  of  the  lake,  and  we  follow 
its  agency  in  the  circling  waves  that  go  off  from  the  point 
of  the  stone's  descent,  and  in  this  undulating  disturbance 
we  have  the  visible  index  of  what  this  newly  introduced 
force  is  doing.  It  manifests  itself  to  sense  in  the  effects  it 


MATERIAL    CREATION    A    SPHERE.  137 

produces  upon  the  material  forces  already  existing,  and  we 
rest  upon  the  index  as  appearance,  and  do  not  attempt 
ordinarily  to  trace  by  the  eye  of  reason  the  invisible  force 
which  has  been  really  the  efficient  agent  in  this  circular  un 
dulation.  But  we  will  now  follow  the  stone  in  its  descent, 
and  as  it  sank  below  the  surface,  there  was  a  like  displace 
ment  of  the  water  and  a  coming  rush  together  again  through 
this  perpetuated  vacuum,  and  thus  truly  another  central 
waving  expansion  impressing  itself  upon  the  water  beneath 
the  surface,  and  so  on  in  continual  succession  to  the  bottom 
of  the  lake.  The  whole  water  from  the  surface  to  the  bot 
tom  has  been  made  to  arrange  itself  in  circular  waves  about 
the  path  of  the  stone's  descent,  but  no  index  of  the  action 
of  the  force  below  the  surface  has  been  given.  We  see  the 
waves  on  the  surface,  but  the  waves  below  do  not  appear. 
We  no  longer  rest  upon  the  senses,  but  if  we  attempt  to 
read  the  action  going  on  below  the  surface,  we  are  obliged 
at  once  to  resort  to  some  new  process  for  apprehending  it. 
The  man  least  capable  of  insight,  and  most  dependent 
upon  sense  in  his  activity,  will  doubtless  construct  in  imagi 
nation  such  circling  waves  in  the  water  down  to  the  bot 
tom,  and  apprehend  the  action  of  the  new  force  only  in  the 
indices  which  his  imagination  supplies.  It  will  thus  be,  as 
is  his  apprehension  on  the  surface,  solely  in  the  indices  of 
what  the  applied  force  is  doing,  and  not  in  any  rational 
insight  that  follows  the  efficiency  itself  in  its  working ;  the 
only  difference  being  this,  that  on  the  surface  he  sees  it, 
and  below  the  surface  he  imagines  it.  But  the  man  that  has 
made  himself  more  independent  of  sense,  and  competent 
to  use  the  insight  of  his  reason  in  apprehending  the  efficient 
force  itself,  will  not  care  to  call  in  any  aid  from  his  fancy  in 


138        THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

constructing  imaginary  circular  waves  that  he  may  follow 
to  the  bottom,  but  he  will  apprehend  that  newly  induced 
force  itself,  and  follow  it  directly  out  in  the  waving  circles 
it  must  make  in  its  own  action ;  seeing  immediately  in  it 
self  what  it  must  do,  and  not  in  any  constructions  of  the 
fancy  the  indices  only  of  what  he  imagines  it  has  done. 
And  that  mind  can  follow  the  naked  force  in  its  action  upon 
the  surface  as  well  as  below  it.  Independent  of  what  his 
eye  perceives  in  the  produced  waves,  his  reason  directly 
knows  the  forces  and  their  laws  winch  are  there  working, 
and  in  the  forces  knows  what  the  circling  waves  must  be, 
and  not  merely  in  the  perceived  waves  judges  what  the 
forces  have  been. 

So  would  it  be  again,  if  we  put  the  force  at  work  in 
the  unseen  air  about  us.  The  percussion  of  solid  bodies, 
or  the  force  of  the  human  voice,  make  their  similar  circu 
lar,  or,  as  entirely  surrounded,  their  spherical  waves  in  the 
atmosphere,  and  the  empirical  observer  because  he  cannot 
see  the  waves  and  yet  cannot  guide  his  movement  without 
some  constructed  indices,  makes  these  waves  in  his  fancy, 
and  thus  follows  the  i^rces  where  he  imagines  they  have 
gone,  while  the  mind  accustomed  to  use  and  rely  upon  his 
rational  intuitions,  dispenses  altogether  with  any  con 
structions  of  the  fancy,  and  makes  the  force  itself  in  its 
own  laws  pioneer  the  way  to  the  conditioned  appearances 
which  he  knows  must  come  from  its  working. 

This  following  out  of  the  action  of  force  in  its  own 
laws  is  what  we  now  need,  and  if  reference  be  made  to 
empirical  appearances  as  the  registers  and  indices  of  the 
efficient  realities,  it  is  only  thereby  to  assist  the  less  inde 
pendent  thinkers,  guided  awhile  by  the  indices,  ultimately 


MATERIAL  CREATION  A  SPHERE.         139 

to  mature  the  use  of  their  rational  apprehension,  so  that 
they  too  may  dispense  with  the  sense-perception  and  guide 
themselves  solely  by  the  clear  insight  of  the  reason.  In 
this  way  we  come  to  know,  not  by  any  inference  from  one 
appearing  fact  what  according  to  former  experience  was 
the  probable  fact  that  preceded  it,  and  thus,  at  the  best, 
only  creep  up  from  one  fact  to  another  on  the  ground  of 
an  assumed  uniformity  in  experience,  but  by  an  immediate 
insight  into  things  themselves,  we  know  what  those  things 
must  be  and  do,  and  how  the  facts  must  stand  from  the 
eternal  principles  which  condition  them. 

Taking  then  the  independent  action  of  force,  as  the 
conception  of  two  countervailing  spiritual  activities,  and 
following  out  the  action  directly  according  to  the  neces 
sary  laws  of  motion,  we  come  to  the  knowledge  that  mat 
ter  must  accumulate  itself  about  the  point  of  counter- 
agency  in  the  form  of  a  sphere,  and  must  take  on  all  the 
properties  of  a  solid  globe,  which  has  the  whole  space  filled 
from  the  centre  to  the  circumference  with  the  successive 
forces,  in  their  contiguous  positions,  sent  off  from  the  cen 
tral  action  of  the  original  simple  antagonism.  Whether 
we  lean  upon  the  indices  in  the  supposed  metallic  rods, 
fused  at  their  pressed  points  of  contact,  or  take,  as  an  in 
dependent  object  for  the  reason,  the  simple  agency  of  a 
spiritual  counteraction,  in  a  force  that  builds  itself  up  about 
a  position  that  itself  has  first  fixed  itself  in,  the  true  con 
dition  and  law  of  motion  and  combination  will  be  the  same 
in  both,  and  the  real  force  which  does  the  forming  work 
will  be  the  same  distinct  efficiency  to  be  followed  in  each 
case.  Whether  it  be  pure  original  force,  which  takes  and 
fills  space  and  accumulates  material  existence  about  its 


140   THE  ETERNAL  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  UNIVERSE. 

point  of  counteraction,  or  whether  it  be  some  new  force  in 
troduced  into  matter,  and  moving  this  already  existing 
matter  into  new  forms,  the  action  and  motion  and  formal 
combinations  in  each  must  be  precisely  the  same,  and  the 
practised  eye  of  reason  can  apprehend  and  follow  the  pure 
original  force  as  readily  as  that  which  registers  itself  in 
already  existing  forces. 

At  the  point  of  counteraction  each  agency  must  turn 
its  opposite  back  upon  itself,  so  that  there  is  not  merely  a 
counter-working  at  one  point  where  the  agencies  meet,  as 
in  the  inception  of  the  antagonism,  but  from  the  very  ac 
tion  of  the  antagonism,  the  antagonists  have  made  each 
the  other  to  react  upon  itself,  and  press  back  upon  its  own 
line  of  action,  so  that  not  only  now  is  there  counteraction 
where  one  simple  activity  meets  the  other,  but  each  way 
in  the  line  of  action,  each  activity  has  been  made  to  react 
upon  itself,  and  there  is  counter-agency  each  way  out  of 
and  beyond  the  point  of  contact,  and  thus  already  has 
there  been  an  accumulation;  a  growth,  a  new-birth  of 
forces  from  the  original  point  of  counter-working.  And 
now,  were  there  but  the  simple  law  of  action  and  reaction 
as  opposite  and  equal,  the  accumulations  of  force  must  be 
in  the  right  line  of  the  original  activities,  and  each  one  ac 
cumulate,  by  its  retorsion  from  the  energy  of  the  other, 
new  antagonisms  in  itself  successively  as  from  point  to 
point  it  was  made  to  turn  back  upon  itself.  Matter  would 
thus  necessarily  be  generated  in  right  lines.  But  the 
second  law  of  motion  comes  in  immediately  upon  the  orig 
inal  counter-working,  and  so  soon  as  there  succeeds  a  re 
action  in  each  simple  activity,  and  thus  a  force  fixing  upon 
a  new  position  out  of  the  original  point  of  contact,  there 


MATERIAL   CREATION   A   SPHERE.  141 

comes  at  once  an  extended  static  each  way  in  this  line,  and 
thus  an  excess  of  resistance  over  that  of  a  lateral  move 
ment  from  the  point  of  contact.  The  reagency  therefore 
cannot  move  directly  back  in  each  in  the  line  of  the  orig 
inal  antagonism,  but  must  be  compounded  of  the  forces 
acting,  and  thus  moving  out  every  way  from  the  point  of 
original  contact,  and  as  it  were,  lifting  itself  up  every  way 
from  this  point  as  a  centre ;  and  thus  the  force  accumu 
lates,  not  only  back  in  the  line  of  the  original  agencies 
through  their  mutual  reaction,  but  also,  from  the  com 
pounding  of  the  movement  of  such  accumulation  of  resist 
ance  in  that  direction,  every  way  laterally  from  the  point 
of  counteraction.  While  then  the  simple  reacting  force 
would  go  out  in  right  lines  directly  back  each  way  from 
the  point  of  contact,  the  compounded  forces  will  rise,  as 
it  were  in  a  ring,  at  the  point  of  contact  directly  transverse 
of  the  original  line  of  action. 

But  again,  so  soon  as  the  accumulation  should  thus  be 
gin  in  this  ring  at  right  angles  to  the  original  direction,  the 
antagonisms  of  which  the  ring  is  itself  composed  must  turn 
the  component  simple  activities  each  back  upon  itself 
through  all  the  points  of  force  in  the  ring,  just  as  at  first 
the  one  central  antagonism  turned  its  simple  activities  back 
upon  themselves.  This  pushing  each  its  fellow-activity 
back  upon  itself,  in  every  point  of  force  composing  the 
transverse  ring,  must  accumulate  two  other  rings  of  forces, 
one  on  each  side  of  the  first  or  equatorial  ring,  and  which 
will  be,  in  fact,  the  turning  of  the  whole  ring  on  each  side 
from  itself,  and  making  it  to  flow  in  newly  engendered 
streams  of  forces  on  both  sides  backward  toward  the  polar 
points.  The  continued  activity  of  the  central  antagonism, 


142        THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

kept  by  the  polar  points  from  going  back  any  further  in  a 
right  line  as  an  axis,  must  perpetuate  this  flowing  back  on 
each  side  of  the  equator,  in  new  generations  of  forces,  till 
they  meet  in  their  respective  polar  points,  and  a  proper 
globe  is  thus  formed  by  a  spherical  layer  all  about  the  cen 
tral  point.  This  primitive  globe  is  now  self-balanced  in  all 
its  points ;  but  as  the  central  action  goes  on,  it  must  again 
push  each  way  in  the  axis  and  generate  two  other  polar 
points  beyond,  thereby  elongating  the  axis,  and  in  this 
elongation  there  comes  as  before  a  static  rest  in  the  axial 
direction,  and  the  central  working  must  rise  again  in  a  new 
transverse  ring,  and  repeat  a  new  flow  of  forces  in  their 
rings  from  the  equator  each  way  to  the  poles,  and  augment 
the  globe  by  another  ensphering  layer,  when  all  again  is 
balanced,  and  a  new  elongation  of  the  axis  takes  place  to 
repeat  the  same  equatorial  rising  and  flowing  back  to  the 
poles,  and  so  on  indefinitely  till  the  reactions  in  the  accu 
mulating  forces  of  the  globe  balance  the  energy  of  the  cen 
tral  working,  and  the  globe  ceases  to  grow.  An  infinite 
energy  at  the  centre  may  generate  new  layers  infinitely. 
The  Almighty  may  make  the  globe  of  the  universe  as  large 
as  he  pleases,  and  when  he  ceases  to  augment  the  central 
action  against  the  ensphered  reactions,  the  globe  will  have 
attained  its  determined  magnitude. 

The  eternal  principles  of  motion  determine  the  universe 
of  matter  to  a  spherical  form,  not  merely,  as  Plato  assumes, 
because  this  is  the  most  reasonable  as  being  the  most 
perfect  figure,  but  the  most  reasonable  inasmuch  as  the 
insight  of  reason  determines  the  space-filling  force  to  such 
result. 

It  is  also  manifest  that  this  sphere  so  formed  will  be  a 


MATERIAL   CREATION   A   SPHERE.  143 

concrete  unity,  and  not  a  mass  of  separate  and  disjoined 
particles  merely  aggregated  in  juxtaposition.  The  central 
antagonism  turns  each  simple  agency  back  upon  itself  by  a 
continuous  movement,  and  as  this  becomes  an  extended 
static,  it  generates  the  new  compounded  lateral  movement, 
that  rises  as  it  were  in  an  equatorial  ring  about  the  middle 
point  of  counteraction  transverse  of  the  direction  in  the 
simple  activities,  and  then  flows  back  on  each  side  of  the 
equatorial  ring  to  the  poles,  and  balances  the  whole  against 
the  polar  points,  to  begin  and  go  over  again  the  same  pro 
cess  perpetually  till  the  universal  globe  is  finished.  There 
is  not,  thus,  a  single  position  within  the  sphere,  except  the 
centre,  that  has  been  taken  separately  and  independently ; 
but  each  position  has  been  taken  and  held  by  the  new  force 
generated  and  sent  to  it  in  a  continuous  action  from  the  one 
preceding,  and  thus  every  point  of  force  is  held  where  it  is, 
not  merely  by  its  own  antagonism  but  by  the  conjoint  action 
of  every  other  point  offeree  in  the  sphere.  The  movement 
to  each,  in  the  eye  of  the  reason,  has  been  through  its  pre 
ceding  conditions,  and  yet  as  these  conditions  could  admit 
of  no  appreciable  interval  between  them,  the  whole  uprising 
is  to  the  sense  simultaneous.  The  central  point  of  counter- 
agency  is  thus  at  once  made  a  ball,  whose  radii  are  the 
centre  and  one  point  or  position  out  of  it  on  every  side  of 
it,  and  the  continual  working  at  the  centre,  continually 
generates  new  balls  within  the  old,  expanding  the  old.  as 
the  new  are  generated  within  them,  and  all  the  layers  thus 
crowded  out  by  the  new  central  creations  are  in  a  continu 
ous  connection  with  the  new,  and  the  whole  globe  is  held  in 
one  as  it  were  by  a  perpetuated  agency  that  runs  through 
and  connects  every  position.  No  portion  of  the  material 


144:       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

force  is  isolate  from  the  rest,  but  the  whole  ball  is  a  con 
crete  from  the  centre  through  its  entire  sphere. 

It  thus  follows,  that  no  portion  of  matter  in  the  forces 
accumulated  in  this  globe,  can  be  reverted  back  into  the 
simple  agencies  from  which  these  forces  were  generated, 
and  thus  become  again  not  force  but  simple  spiritual  ac 
tivity  and  which  would  be  the  same  as  the  annihilation  of 
matter,  except  by  a  collapse  at  the  centre.  While  the  cen 
tral  antagonism  is  constant,  all  the  force  that  has  been 
generated  and  sent  out  from  it  will  press  back  upon  it  but 
cannot  escape  through  it.  By  no  way  can  the  created 
matter  be  lost  except  through  a  dissolution  of  the  central 
force,  and  the  instant  that  this  central  antagonism  should 
cease  and  the  simple  agencies  counterworking  there  should 
separate,  the  outlying  forces  in  the  globe  would  have 
nothing  to  rest  upon,  and  they  must  all  dissolve,  and 
literally, 

"Like  the  baseless  fabric  of  a  vision, 
Leave  not  a  wreck  behind." 

All  matter,  moreover,  must  thus  continually  remain  not 
only  so  long  as  the  central  force  holds,  but  it  must  remain 
as  it  went  out  from  the  centre.  Except  as  some  modifying 
action  follow  out  after  it  from  the  centre,  the  force  that  has 
already  gone  off  in  accumulation  about  the  centre  will  con 
tinue  unchanged.  The  way  to  superinduce  new  forces 
into  the  material  universe,  and  shape  to  different  results 
those  already  acting,  will  be  by  new  or  modified  forces  at 
the  centre.  The  whole  globe  is  controlled  through  the 
central  agency.  What  has  gone  off,  so  far  as  we  have  yet 
followed  out  the  creative  action,  has  been  only  an  accumu- 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   GRAVITY.  145 

lation  of  space-filling  forces,  and  the  whole  globe  is  consti 
tuted  of  manifold  antagonisms,  each  and  all  occupying  their 
own  positions,  and  held  in  them  by  the  one  activity  that 
pervades  them  all.  While  thus  a-  concrete,  it  is  also  mani 
fest  that  this  globe  offerees  is  a  perfect  static.  Any  action 
that  changes  the  equilibrium  in  one  point  finds  no  counter 
action,  in  the  even  balance  of  the  whole,  till  it  has  gone 
through  and  equalized  itself  in  the  change  of  the  whole. 
An  introduction  of  any  new  force,  or  augmented  action,  at 
the  centre,  must  make  itself  felt  through  all  the  globe. 

9.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  GRAVITY. — It  is  the  crowning 
glory  of  Induction,  that  it  prompted  to  the  search  and 
guided  to  the  attainment  of  the  law  of  gravity.  The 
name  of  Newton  is  made  immortal  from  this  sublime  dis 
covery.  It  will  detract  nothing  from  the  true  honor  of 
the  Inductive  philosophy,  nor  from  the  undying  fame  of 
Newton,  to  put  in  the  precise  light  of  truth  what  is  the 
exact  amount  of  physical  science  secured  in  that  discovery. 
Its  hypothesis  was  that  there  was  a  tendency  in  all  matter 
to  approach  to  all  other  matter  in  certain  ratios.  This 
hypothesis  was  suggested  to  the  fertile  mind  of  Newton 
by  a  single  occurrence,  and  when  tried  by  extended  obser 
vation,  it  was  found  in  accordance  with  so  many  other  oc 
currences,  that  there  was  no  hesitation  in  assuming  it  as  a 
universal  fact.  Very  extended  and  profound  researches 
into  appropriate  facts,  especiaUy  the  complicated  facts  of 
the  variations  in  the  moon's  revolutions,  at  length  con 
firmed  the  conclusion,  that  the  ratio  of  this  gravitating 
tendency  in  matter  was  directly  as  the  quantity  of  the 
matter,  and  inversely  as  the  square  of  the  distance.  This 
fact  of  the  gravitating  tendency  of  matter,  and  the  further 
10 


146       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

facts  of  its  ratios,  put  into  a  general  formula,  enables  the 
natural  philosopher  to  classify  an  immense  amount  of  par 
ticular  facts  under  this  simple  category,  and  ever  after  to 
know  their  place  and  recognize  their  relations  in  the  grand 
system  of  facts  which  he  brings  together.  This  is  the 
extent  of  its  use,  the  taking  of  this  as  a  broader  fact  which 
may  embrace  a  vast  number  of  particular  facts  within  it, 
and  enable  to  say,  because  this  is  fact,  therefore  these 
other  particular  facts  are  as  they  have  been  found  to  be. 
It  is  thus  called  the  Law  of  Gravity,  not  because  the  prin 
ciple  determining  it  has  at  all  been  found,  but  only  because 
such  a  general  fact  having  been  found,  the  subordinate 
facts  can  all  be  referred  to  it.  It  does  not  reveal  why  the 
facts  embraced  in  this  formula  are,  nor  that  they  might  not 
have  been  other  and  opposite ;  but  simply  having  by  a 
broad  induction  so  far  found  them  thus  to  be,  and  then 
assuming  that  through  all  experience  they  will  be  found  so 
to  be,  there  is  hence  the  warrant  for  concluding  that 
these  particular  facts  are  embraced  in  the  universal  one. 
It  can  only  suppose  matter,  as  originally  inert,  to  have 
such  a  tendency  arbitrarily  imposed  upon  it,  and  not  at  all 
that  there  are  principles  older  than  the  facts,  and  which 
eternally  and  immutably  condition  the  facts,  and  are  thus 
infallible  reasons  for  the  facts. 

Of  this  tendency  in  matter  to  approach  other  matter, 
no  explanation  can  be  given.  It  may  sometimes  be  said 
that  it  seeks  to  approach,  as  if  the  explanation  would  be 
given  that  there  was  some  sentient  life  in  matter,  and  that 
this  tendency  was  the  congeniality  of  social  affinities ;  the 
movement  of  matter  expounded  by  the  susceptibilities  of 
mind.  Just  as  it  was  early  said  in  explanation  of  the 


THE   PKINCIPLE    OF   GKAVITY.  14-7 

rising  water  in  the  pump,  that  nature  abhorred  a  vacuum. 
This  attraction,  as  now  named,  is  as  wholly  vacant  of  all 
reason  as  was  the  suction,  as  then  called.     When  the  fact 
of  gravity  had  been  discovered,  then  this  power  of  suction 
came  readily  within  it;  the  weight  or  gravitating  force 
of  the  atmosphere  pressing  upon  the  water  out  of  the  pump, 
forced  it  up  into  the  vacuum  made  within  the  pump,  and 
we  put  away  all  our  conceptions  of  "  the  powers  of  suc 
tion  »  and  "  abhorrence  of  a  vacuum,"  and  by  an  insight  of 
reason  follow  the  force  which  does  the  whole  work,  and 
smile  at  the  unreasoning  simplicity  of  an  earlier  philosophy. 
But  what  has  been  gained,  except  simply  removing  the 
mystery  and  our  ignorance  one  step  further  back  ?     Why 
the  atmosphere  seeks  the  earth  is  just  as  truly  without  a 
reason,  as  why  nature  abhors  a  vacuum;  and  the  word 
attraction  has  within  it  as  gross  a  solecism,  when  the  ne 
cessary  law  of  forces  is  apprehended,  as  had  the  old  word 
suction.     Matter  no  more  draws  matter,  than  the  pump 
sucked  water.     The  pump  removed  the  air  from  a  space, 
and  an  outside  force  pressed  water  into  it ;  and  so  the  cen 
tral  force  sends  off  matter  through  a  given  sphere,  and 
the   same  force  which   sends   off   all  molecules  thereby 
presses  back  each  one.     And  as  an  estimate  of  the  force 
of  atmospheric  pressure  enabled  the  philosopher  to  deter- 
mine  the  power  of  the  pump,  even  so  does  the  estimate  of 
the  central  force  enable  the  philosopher  to  determine  the 
power  of  gravity. 

The  difference  in  the  two  cases  is,  however,  very  wide 
and  important.  The  philosophy  of  the  pump  was  grounded 
in  a  higher /«c£  only,  and  that  fact  left  wholly  inexplicable. 
The  pump  was  explained  only  by  a  reference  to  a  higher 


148        THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

fact  which  could  not  be  explained;  and  by  leaving  the 
higher  inexplicable,  the  whole  was  truly  an  impenetrable 
mystery.  But  if  we  expound  the  force  of  gravity,  not  by 
running  it  into  some  higher  fact  which  is  itself  left  in  dark 
ness,  but  by  applying  an  unmade  and  eternal  principle  to 
it,  which  must  necessarily  so  condition  all  facts  of  material 
existence,  then  have  we  a  radical  and  ultimate  exposition, 
and  have  traced  all  the  mystery  in  the  nature  of  matter  up 
to  the  light  of  the  supernatural  reason,  and  can  say  gravity 
is  thus,  because  the  immutable  principle  in  the  absolute 
reason  determined  it  must  be  thus  and  not  otherwise. 
Gravity  is  then  no  longer  a  mere  fact,  a  thing  made,  and 
which  might  have  been  any  otherwise  made ;  but  a  fact 
with  an  eternal  and  immutable  law  in  it ;  a  fact  embodying 
an  uncreated  and  necessary  principle  of  the  reason,  and 
in  following  which  principle  in  the  making,  the  absolute 
Creator  manifested  his  immutable  wisdom  and  truth.  To 
this  eternally  necessary  and  immutable  law  of  gravity,  we 
now  turn  the  insight  of  the  reason,  that  we  may  clearly 
apprehend  the  unmade  principle  which  conditions  and  de 
termines  it  to  be  thus  and  no  otherwise. 

No  one  point  in  the  sphere  can  be  equally  balanced  in 
its  own  simple  antagonistic  agencies,  except  the  central 
point.  Here  the  originating,  simple  activities  begin,  and 
hold  each  other  in  balanced  energy,  and  turn  each  other 
back  upon  themselves,  thus  making  a  tendency  to  accumu 
late  force  in  two  positions  on  the  line  of  direction  each 
side  and  out  of  the  centre,  and  which  tendency,  as  we  have 
above  seen,  creates  further  the  tendency  to  accumulate  in 
an  equatorial  ring,  and  turn  back  each  way  this  ring  till  its 
accumulations  make  an  ensphering  layer  on  each  side  to 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   GRAVITY.  149 

the  poles.  As  these  new  hemispheres  of  layers  on  each 
side  of  the  equator  are  formed,  they  balance  the  whole 
equatorial  antagonism  in  the  aggregate  in  the  polar  points, 
and  thus  it  must  be  that  the  edges,  so  to  speak,  of  the 
hemispherical  layers  in  the  equator  push  back  on  each  side 
in  meridional  lines  against  the  poles.  The  whole  globe  is 
a  unit,  and  yet  the  two  simple  activities  so  push  each  other 
back  upon  themselves,  that  one  hemisphere  is  generated 
from  the  retorsions  of  one  activity,  and  the  other  hemi 
sphere  from  the  opposite  activity.  As  the  generation  of 
the  globe  proceeds,  each  layer,  and  each  meridional  line  in 
the  layer,  must  turn  itself  back  from  the  energy  of  its 
antagonist,  in  new  hemispherical  layers,  and  thus  the  globe 
grows  on  the  inside  in  every  layer  perpetually  as  well  as 
by  an  outside  layer ;  or,  in  other  words,  the  whole  globe 
augments  itself  by  the  antagonism  of  its  two  hemispheres, 
as  the  first  central  point  does  by  the  antagonism  of  its  sim 
ple  activities. 

We  may  then  carry  on  the  intuitive  process,  and  take 
any  position  out  of  the  centre  and  contiguous  to  the  cen 
tre,  and  it  will  be  a  point  in  a  layer  of  points  ensphering 
the  centre,,  and  it  with  every  other  point  of  that  enspher 
ing  layer  is  pushed  out  and  held  in  position  by  the  antago 
nist  force  working  at  the  centre.  At  the  same  time,  also, 
that  the  central  antagonism  is  pushing  out  and  holding  in 
position  all  the  points  in  this  contiguous  ensphering  layer, 
each  one  of  these  points  is  reacting  and  pushing  back  upon 
the  centre,  and  the  aggregate  of  force  in  all  these  points 
just  equilibrates  the  force  of  the  central  antagonism.  No 
one  force  out  of  the  centre  balances  the  centre,  but  the  ag 
gregate  of  all  the  forces  in  the  contiguous  outlying  layer. 


150       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

So  also,  take  any  contiguous  point  out  of  this  first  enspher 
ing  layer  from  the  centre,  and  it  will  be  one  of  many  points 
in  another  layer  ensphering  the  first,  and  all  the  points  of 
this  second  ensphering  layer  will  react  upon  the  inner 
layer,  as  the  points  in  it  react  and  balance  themselves  upon 
the  centre,  and  thus  the  aggregate  of  force  in  the  second 
layer  equilibrates  the  aggregate  of  force  in  the  first  layer, 
and  this  equilibrates  the  antagonism  at  the  centre,  and 
thus  on  through  all  the  concentric  layers  that  may  have 
been  pushed  out  in  completing  the  whole  globe. 

The  central  point  expels  the  outlying  points  on  all 
sides,  but  each  point  in  the  contiguous  layer  of  points 
about  the  centre,  while  in  the  same  way  acting  outwards 
on  ah1  sides,  must  on  the  side  towards  the  centre  act  upon 
it,  and  only  on  the  side  from  the  centre  can  act  upon  the 
layer  exterior  to  it,  and  in  concert  with  all  the  fellows  of 
its  layer  push  out  this  layer  beyond.  Out  of  the  centre, 
therefore,  each  point  in  every  layer  acts  on  one  side  to 
wards  the  centre  and  balances  itself  upon  it,  or  upon  it  and 
the  points  intervening,  and  on  the  other  side  acts  on  the 
contiguous  point  of  the  exterior  layer,  and  pushes  that 
from  the  centre.  The  quantity  of  force  in  every  molecule, 
and  the  direction  of  its  working  through  the  universal 
globe,  how  large  soever  it  may  be,  is  thus  determined  in 
the  necessary  conditions  of  the  working  of  that  central 
antagonism  which  generates  the  universal  sphere.  So 
much  only  we  need  now  to  note,  that  every  molecule  of 
force  works  outward  from  its  own  inner  antagonism,  and 
by  the  working  of  all,  every  molecule  of  the  universe  out 
of  the  centre  is  pushed  from  the  centre,  and  also  is  repelled 
back  toward  the  centre,  and  the  aggregate  of  all  the  forces 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   GRAVITY.  151 

pushing  outward  is  just  balanced  by  the  aggregate  of  all 
pushing  inward,  and  thus  every  molecule  comes  to  rest  in 
a  static  equilibrium. 

It  is  a  necessary  determination  that  a  globe  so  generat 
ed,  should  have  in  every  molecular  force  a  centrifugal  and  a 
centripetal  tendency  just  balancing  each  other,  and  thus 
holding  the  molecule  at  rest.  The  first  is  properly  expul 
sion,  as  it  is  a  primitive  driving  from  the  centre,  and  the 
latter  is  properly  repulsion  in  its  return  back  toward  the 
centre.  An  utter  misconception,  as  if  at  first  there  was 
somehow  a  suction  drawing  to  the  centre,  and  then  a  re 
jection  of  the  same  from  the  centre,  has  appropriated  the 
term  attraction  for  what  is  truly  the  reagency,  and  repul 
sion  for  what  is  truly  the  first  outgoing  agency.  But  any 
attempted  change  of  terms  would  now  be  hopeless,  and  we 
shall  therefore  use  attraction  for  the  centripetal  and  repul 
sion  for  the  centrifugal  tendency,  yet  philosophically  noting 
perpetually,  as  in  the  Copernican  system  it  is  not  the  sun 
that  rises  and  sets,  so  here  it  is  not  the  coming  to  the  cen 
tre  that  is  primitive,  nor  is  this  coming  a  drawing  but  a 
real  a  tergo  pushing. 

We  will  then  carry  the  insight  of  reason  directly  on 
through  this  idea,  that  we  may  determine  the  ratios  of 
these  forces. 

The  central  point  of  force  pushes  out  all  points  and  just 
equilibrates  their  aggregate  reactions,  and  is  thus  truly  the 
measure  of  force  in  the  whole  sphere.  Every  other  point 
also  pushes  out  in  like  manner  in  every  direction  from  itself, 
and  if  left  to  its  own  action  would  ensphere  the  contiguous 
outlying  points  of  force  about  itself,  but  no  point  of  force 
except  the  centre  can  push  out  and  equilibrate  all  the  other 


152       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE    UNIVERSE. 

points  of  force  in  the  sphere,  since,  on  one  side,  all  points 
of  force  push  back  upon  the  centre  and  balance  themselves 
and  all  pushing  back  on  them  in  the  centre.  As  is  the  en 
ergy  of  the  central  antagonism,  such  is  its  degree  of  force 
and,  which  is  the  same  thing,  its  quantity  of  matter ;  and 
in  proportion  to  its  energy  will  be  the  magnitude  of  the 
sphere  generated,  and  thereby  the  degrees  of  force,  or,  as 
the  same  thing,  the  quantity  of  matter  in  each  point  of 
force  through  the  whole  sphere.  The  amount  of  centrifu 
gal  force  in  the  whole  sphere  is,  therefore,  directly  as  the 
quantity  of  matter,  and  the  amount  of  repulsion  in  the  cen 
tral  molecule  will  also  be  as  its  quantity  of  matter ;  and  as 
each  point  out  of  the  centre  must  be  pressed  out  and  press 
back  proportioned  to  the  layers  within  and  beyond  it,  so 
all  molecules  of  the  sphere  must  also  have  their  repulsions 
directly  as  is  to  each  one  its  quantity  of  matter.  In  all 
respects,  the  force  of  repulsion  must  be  directly  as  the 
quantity  of  matter. 

The  molecule  at  the  centre  repels  all  the  outlying  mole 
cules  on  all  sides  from  the  centre,  with  a  force  directly 
proportioned  to  the  amount  of  matter  in  the  sphere,  and  in 
the  case  of  a  sphere  standing  alone  in  the  void,  as  must  the 
universal  sphere,  the  amount  of  matter  in  the  sphere  must 
be  as  its  volume,  or,  which  is  the  same  ratio,  as  the  cube 
of  its  radius.  But  any  concentric  layer  of  molecular  forces 
is  diminished  in  its  repulsion  in  proportion  to  the  number 
of  layers  that  are  between  it  and  the  centre,  i.  e.,  in  pro 
portion  to  the  cube  of  the  radius  of  its  own  sphere,  and 
thus  each  ensphered  layer  of  molecules  repels  inversely  as 
the  cube  of  the  radius  of  its  own  sphere;  and  as  each 
molecule  in  the  layer  may  be  understood  as  the  terminus 


THE   PRINCIPLE    OF   GRAVITY.  153 

of  a  radius  to  the  ensphered  layer  in  which  it  is,  so  any 
molecule  in  a  spherical  layer,  and  thus  any  molecule  in  the 
whole  globe,  repels  inversely  as  the  cube  of  its  distance 
from  the  centre.  We  have,  therefore,  the  necessary  law 
for  repulsion — directly  as  quantity  of  matter,  and  inversely 
as  the  cube  of  the  distance. 

The  force  of  attraction  does  not,  like  the  force  of  repul 
sion,  act  from  the  centre  outwards  on  all  sides,  but  is  the 
reacting  force  against  repulsion  from  every  point  in  the 
sphere  and  coming  back  in  a  direct  line  to  the  centre.    The 
aggregate  of  attraction  in  the  entire  sphere  is  equal  to  the 
amount  of  repulsion  going  out  from  the  centre,  for  they 
equilibrate  each  other  in  the  static  position  of  every  mole 
cule.     The  repulsion  is,  however,  from  the  point  on  all 
sides,  but  the  attraction  is  from  the  point  on  one  side  only 
and  working  directly  towards  the  centre.     "We  may,  then, 
take  all  the  points  in  any  plane  passing  through  the  centre, 
and  we  shall  have  the  aggregate  attraction  of  that  plane  in 
right  lines  to  the  centre.     This  will  give  the  aggregate  at 
traction  to  be  as  the  area,  or,  as  the  same  thing,  to  be  as 
the  square  of  the  radius.     But  any  concentric  circle  in  this 
area  is  diminished  in  attraction  in  proportion  to  the  num 
ber  of  concentric  circles  that  may  be  made  between  it  and 
the  centre,  i.  e.,  in  proportion  to  the  square  of  the  radius 
of  itself,  and  therefore  each  possible  circle  in  this  area  is 
attracted  inversely  as  the  square  of  its  radius ;  and  as  each 
molecule  in  the  circumference  of  the  concentric  circle  may 
be  understood  as  the  terminus  of  a  radius  of  that  circle,  so 
any  molecule  in  any  concentric  circle  of  the  area,  and 
therefore  any  molecule  in  the  whole  area,  is  attracted  to 
the  centre  inversely  as  the  square  of  its  distance  from  the 


154:       THE   ETEENAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVEKSE. 

centre.  But  this  diminishing  attraction  from  the  centre 
vanishes  wholly  away  in  the  circumference,  and  thus  the 
attraction,  between  any  two  points  separately  and  respect 
ively  in  the  same  radius,  is  inversely  as  the  square  of  the 
distance  between  them. 

This  must  be  the  law  of  attraction  for  all  points  in  the 
radii  of  the  same  sphere,  for  they  may  all  be  taken  in  their 
relative  planes  and  thereby  subjected  to  the  same  principle. 
And  this  applies  not  merely  to  the  points  in  the  same 
globe,  but  relatively  to  all  globes ;  for  all  globes  must  have 
their  repulsive  and  attractive  forces  balanced,  and  the  in- 
tensity  of  these  antagonisms  constitutes  their  quantity  of 
matter.  As  is  the  pressure  at  the  centre  such  must  be  the 
magnitude  of  the  ensphered  forces,  and  thus  such  the 
length  of  radii,  and  the  distance  to  which  the  force  goes 
out  from  the  centre,  and  the  reacting  attraction  comes 
back.  In  all  globes,  therefore,  the  attractive  force  must 
be  directly  as  the  quantity  of  matter,  and  inversely  as  the 
square  of  the  distance. 

But  this  is  true,  again,  not  only  of  all  globes  in  respect 
to  each  one's  own  portions  of  matter  among  themselves, 
but  of  all  globes  relatively  to  each  other.  Each  globe 
must  have  its  own  density  and  thus  its  own  distance  for  its 
force  of  gravity  to  act,  and  when  any  two  globes  come 
within  each  other's  range  of  attraction  so  that  the  periph 
eries  of  their  spheres  cut  each  other,  the  point  of  contact  is 
at  once  a  point  of  antagonism,  and  their  acting  central  forces 
must  so  work  this  commencing  antagonism  as  to  push  each 
one  back  upon  itself  and  begin  an  ensphering  anew,  with 
the  central  point  at  the  first  point  of  contact,  and  the  forces 
of  each  globe  must  be  successively  turned  back  in  a  hemi- 


THE   PKINCIPLE    OF   FALLING   BODIES.  155 

sphere  within  itself,  and  both  together  must  form  a  new 
globe  around  this  central  point,  and  like  "kindred  drops 
both  ultimately  mingle  into  one."  Such  common  point 
will  become  the  common  centre  of  attraction  for  each  globe, 
and  if  the  matter  be  fluid  the  two  will  make  one  globe,  and 
if  rigid,  that  point  will  still  hold  the  two  globes  in  unity 
and  become  their  common  centre  of  attraction,  and  must 
act  under  the  above  eternal  principle.  Any  masses  of  mat 
ter,  less  or  more,  must  stand  to  each  other  as  such  two 
globes  when  they  have  their  gravitating  forces  brought  in 
contact,  and  their  common  centre  of  gravity  must  work 
after  this  eternal  principle. 

10.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  FALLING  BODIES. — The  principle 
of  gravity  being  attained,  wre  may  consider  the  force  of 
attraction,  though  made  up  of  the  compounding  of  all  the 
reactions  in  the  globe,  as  if  it  were  in  the  case  of  each 
molecule  a  separate  and  distinct  force.  Each  molecule 
tends  to  the  centre  as  if  it  had  one  simple  activity  of 
greater  energy  working  toward  the  centre,  and  one  activity 
of  less  energy  working  from  the  centre,  and  as  if  the  side 
of  the  weaker  energy  was  helped  in  sustaining  the  position 
of  the  force  against  the  greater  energy,  by  all  the  forces 
in  the  line  between  it  and  the  centre.  Take,  therefore, 
any  molecule  of  force  in  any  part  of  the  universal  globe, 
except  the  central  one,  away  from  its  position,  and  view  it 
as  if  standing  alone,  and  it  could  not  be  a  static ;  it  could 
not  hold  its  own  place;  it  would  be  impossible  that  it 
should  lie  still.  One  side  has  the  greater  energy,  and  the 
molecule  of  force  must  move  before  that  energy,  since  it 
cannot  rest  against  the  weaker  energy  in  static  position, 


156       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

until  it  can  find  some  competent  assistance  to  the  weaker 
energy,  and  thus  balance  itself  at  rest. 

This  idea  of  a  force  of  unequal  antagonism  determines 
the  generation  of  motion,  in  the  advance  of  the  greater 
energy  through  successive  points.  In  this  is,  also,  by  the 
first  principle  of  motion,  the  determination  of  it  as  uniform 
and  rectilineal.  This  uniformity  of  velocity  is  on  the  con 
dition  that  the  excess  of  energy  in  the  moving  activity  be 
perpetual  and  invariable.  But  the  action  of  gravity,  by 
which  any  aggregate  of  forces  tend  to  the  centre,  though 
working  in  a  right  line  cannot  continue  of  uniform  energy. 
There  must  be  a  constant  accumulation,  inasmuch  as  there 
is  a  constant  transfer  of  new  force  with  a  perpetual  reten 
tion  of  what  has  already  been  received.  A  full  conception 
of  the  force  of  gravity  gives  occasion  for  determining  this 
increment  of  motive-energy,  and  attaining  the  law  by  which 
the  velocity  of  any  body  falling  unhindered  towards  the 
centre  must  be  regulated. 

We  may  assume  any  point  of  force,  or  which  will  be 
the  same  thing,  a  body  with  its  aggregate  points  of  force, 
and  if  the  forces  in  the  points  of  the  radius  between  this 
body  and  the  great  centre  be  supposed  to  be  weakened  in 
intensity,  or  those  in  the  body  augmented,  that  body  must 
move  through  the  line  of  the  radius  towards  the  centre, 
and  which  is  but  saying  that  it  must  fall.  This  necessity 
for  falling  is  seen  in  the  excess  of  energy  which  every 
point  in  the  sphere  has,  in  that  activity  which  is  further 
from  the  centre  and  is  working  towards  the  centre. 
When  the  intervening  pressure  from  the  centre,  which 
assisted  and  thus  made  equal  to  the  other  that  activity 
which  was  nearest  the  centre,  has  been  taken  away,  this 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   FALLING   BODIES.  157 

excess  of  energy  must  prevail  and  generate  a  movement  in 
a  right  line  before  it.  The  one  activity  is  not  of  sufficient 
energy  that  the  other  should  rest  itself  against  it,  and  both 
in  their  common  point  of  antagonism  must  fall  together. 
But  such  fall  cannot  be  uniform,  as  in  the  steady  force 
which  determines  the  first  law  of  motion.  There,  the  ex 
cess  of  energy,  or  moving  force  remains  constant,  and  just 
avails  to  move  at  its  own  rate  of  velocity  without  accumu 
lation.  Here,  it  moves  and  adds  itself  perpetually.  The 
excess  of  energy  which  generated  the  movement  remains, 
and  when  at  the  next  position  nearer  the  centre,  there  is 
also  the  excess  of  energy  that  would  have  generated  an 
original  motion  at  that  point,  and  thus  the  one  degree  of 
excess  is  retained  and  an  additional  degree  received  in  the 
movement  from  this  second  position,  and  in  this  necessity 
of  perpetual  increment  is  determined  the  law  by  which  it 
must  fall. 

Take  then  any  body,  and  let  it  possess  its  degree  of  excess 
of  energy  on  the  side  opposite  the  centre,  and  it  must  gravi 
tate  toward  the  centre.  It  must  thus  pass  through  its  one 
measure  of  space,  or  height,  which  we  will  call  H,  in  one 
moment.  In  passing  through  H,  it  has  gained  the  excess 
of  energy,  or  gravity,  that  was  in  the  force  occupying  that 
space,  and  must  therefore  have  now  an  excess  of  energy, 
or  gravity,  from  the  fall  through  H,  that  would  make  it 
fall  the  next  moment  through  2  H.  And  the  original 
excess  of  energy,  or  gravity,  with  which  it  started  is  still 
retained,  and  will  make  it  pass  through  one  measure,  or  H, 
for  this  next  moment  as  it  did  the  first,  so  that  the  body 
for  the  second  moment  must  pass  through  3  H.  At  the 
end  of  the  second  moment,  there  are  the  three  degrees 


158       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

of  excess  of  energy,  or  gravity,  retained,  and  the  last  one 
is  doubled  in  the  gain  of  its  gravity,  and  the  original  excess 
with  which  it  started  at  first  is  also  still  there,  so  that  the 
body  must  fall  the  next  moment  through  5  H.  These  five 
degrees  and  the  last  one  doubled,  and  the  old  excess  with 
which  the  body  began  to  fall  still  constantly  acting,  must 
make  the  fall  to  be  for  the  fourth  moment  through  7  H 

O 

These  seven,  and  the  last  doubled,  and  the  old  excess, 
must  again  make  the  fifth  moment  to  have  a  fall  of  9  H. 
Thus  onwards  perpetually  with  each  successive  moment. 
The  succeeding  moment  must  have  all  the  gravity  of  the 
preceding  passing  over  in  to  it,  and  the  last  degree  gained 
in  the  preceding  moment  must  be  doubled  from  the  excess 
of  energy  gained  and  retained,  and  the  old  primitive  excess 
is  perpetually  going  along,  so  that  each  succeeding  moment 
must  continually  gain  two  measures  of  space,  or  2  H,  above 
the  preceding  moment.  This  must  be  perpetual,  so  long 
as  the  body  continues  to  fall.  The  principle  is  in  the  force 
of  gravity  itself,  that  must  make  an  increment  of  two 
measures  of  descent,  or  as  the  same  thing,  two  degrees  of 
velocity,  in  each  successive  moment.  The  first  moment 
will  have  one  degree  of  velocity,  the  second  moment  three, 
the  third  moment  five,  the  fourth  seven,  and  thus  on  in 
arithmetical  progression  perpetually  with  an  increment  of 
two  degrees  to  the  moment. 

There  must  thus  be  at  the  beginning  of  each  succes 
sive  moment,  an  excess  of  energy,  that  would  carry  the 
body  through  double  the  measures  of  height  fallen  in  all 
the  moments  for  the  next  succeeding  equal  number  of  mo 
ments.  Thus  at  the  end  of  the  second  moment  the  body 
has  fallen  through  4  H,  and  for  the  next  two  moments 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   FALLING   BODIES.  159 

would  fall  through  8  H,  and  at  the  end  of  the  third  mo 
ment  it  has  fallen  through  9  H,  and  in  three  more  moments 
would  fall  through  18  H,  and  at  the  end  of  the  fourth 
moment  it  has  fallen  through  16  H,  and  in  four  moments 
more  would  fall  through  32  H,  and  thus  onwards  perpet 
ually.  This  will  secure  that,  at  each  moment,  the  whole 
measures  of  space  fallen,  or  the  degrees  of  velocity 
attained,  must  be  directly  as  the  squares  of  the  times,  and 
which,  in  the  opposite  direction  from  the  centre,  must  also 
be  demanded  by  the  law  of  gravity  to  be  inversely  as  the 
square  of  the  measure  of  space,  or  distance,  or  in  this  case 
the  velocity.  Thus  the  first  moment  has  fallen  1  H,  which 
is  the  square  of  itself;  the  second  moment  4  H,  or  the 
square  of  two ;  the  third  moment  9  H,  or  the  square  of 
three;  the  fourth  moment  16  H,  or  the  square  of  four; 
and  so  onwards  indefinitely.  Thus  the  sum  of  the  laws  of 
falling  bodies  as  determined  by  the  principle  of  gravity  is 
— that  each  moment  must  increase  by  two  degrees  of 
velocity — that  at  the  end  of  each  moment,  a  velocity  is  at 
tained  that  must  fall  through  double  the  space  in  the  next 
equal  number  of  moments — and  that  the  velocity  gained  is 
directly  as  the  squares  of  the  times. 

The  same  principle,  modified  by  the  cutting  off  and 
neutralizing  a  part  of  the  accumulating  force,  is  found  in 
the  descent  of  bodies  down  an  inclined  plane,  and  thus 
determines  the  law  for  the  increment  of  momentum,  and 
the  counteracting  force  necessary  to  raise  or  balance 
weights  upon  an  inclined  plane.  A  body  placed  upon  an 
inclined  plane  is  acted  upon  by  the  same  force  for  generat 
ing  motion,  as  in  the  above  case  of  a  body  falling  freely. 
The  excess  of  the  antagonism  tends  to  motion  in  the  per- 


160       THE   ETEENAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

pendicular  direction  towards  the  centre  of  gravity.  But 
the  interposition  of  the  plane,  more  or  less  obliquely,  cuts 
off  and  neutralizes  this  force  in  its  direct  action,  and  pro 
portioned  to  the  angle  of  inclination  dissolves  and  diverts 
a  portion  of  the  force  in  the  direction  of  the  plane.  If  it 
had  moved  freely  from  the  start  in  the  perpendicular  direc 
tion,  it  would  have  been  wholly  within  the  former  category 
of  falling  bodies,  but  now  a  proportion  of  the  moving  force 
is  neutralized  by  the  degree  of  inclination  given  to  the  in 
terposed  plane,  and  only  the  remnant  in  the  turned  direc 
tion  is  in  action  to  give  and  gain  an  increment  of  momen 
tum.  The  perpendicular  descent  would  begin  with  the 
whole  energy  of  the  excess  of  static  force,  and  observe  the 
laws  of  increment  of  momentum  in  its  progress ;  the  de 
scent  in  the  inclined  plane  begins  with  the  remnant  that  is 
not  neutralized  by  the  interposition  of  the  plane,  and  ob 
serves  the  same  law  of  increment  of  momentum  in  falling 
down  the  plane.  The  plane  is  the  hypothenuse  of  a  right 
angled  triangle,  of  which  one  of  the  sides  containing  the 
right  angle  is  the  perpendicular,  and  the  other  containing 
side  is  the  base  of  the  plane.  The  times  and  proportions 
of  increment  of  momentum  are,  thus,  as  the  proportion  of 
the  perpendicular  to  the  hypothenuse.  The  descent  must 
be  through  the  whole  plane  to  gain  the  increment  of  rela 
tive  momentum,  which  the  body  falling  freely  gains  in  de 
scending  through  the  perpendicular. 

It  thus  follows  that  a  proportionally  smaller  body,  fall 
ing  freely,  may  be  made  to  balance  a  larger  body  falling 
down  an  inclined  plane.  Two  bodies,  so  attached  that  the 
smaller  shall  act  through  a  line  in  the  plane  in  opposition 
to  the  descending  force,  and  left  to  fall  freely  down  the 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   FALLING   BODIES.  161 

perpendicular,  must  equilibrate  when  equal  momenta 
are  gained  in  equal  times.  The  disparity  in  the  quantity 
of  matter  of  the  bodies  balancing,  will  be  as  the  difference 
in  the  rate  of  movement ;  the  less  velocity  on  the  plane 
being  the  index  of  the  lesser  increment  of  momentum  in 
the  same  space,  and  the  greater  velocity  down  the  per 
pendicular  being  the  index  of  the  greater  increment  of 
momentum  in  the  same  time.  Here  is  no  gain  of  force, 
but  the  economy  of  substituting  a  less  force  for  a  greater 
period  of  working;  but  this  economy  is,  however,  of  great 
moment,  and  may  be  used  to  an  indefinite  extent.  The 
universe  of  matter  may  readily  be  conceived  as  thus  bal 
anced  by  a  grain.  The  principle  of  the  inclined  plane  is  in 
the  wedge,  which  may  be  made  to  incline  on  one  or  on 
both  sides,  and  in  the  screw,  as  a  spirally  inclined  plane,  and 
thus  all  these  so  called  mechanical  powers  find  their  full 
explication  in  the  conception  of  momentum  as  attained 
solely  through  the  insight  of  the  reason  in  the  law  of  fall 
ing  bodies,  connected  with  the  conceptions  of  momentum 
and  virtual  velocities. 

Applying  the  same  representative  of  the  increment  of 
velocity  for  the  increment  of  force  which  generates  this 
velocity,  in  what  is  termed  virtual  velocity,  we  may  in  the 
like  manner  attain  the  principle  of  the  lever,  as  a  mechani 
cal  power,  in  all  the  ways  of  its  application.  If  we  conceive 
the  diameter  of  a  circle  to  be  an  inflexible  rod  resting  upon 
its  centre,  and  that  masses  of  matter  of  equal  quantity  are 
affixed  to  the  two  extremities,  it  is  plain  that  they  must 
balance  each  other,  inasmuch  as  their  momenta,  i.  e.,  their 
quantities  of  matter  and  virtual  velocities,  are  equal.  But 
if  we  shorten  one  semi-diameter,  or  slide  the  rod  on  the 


162       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

centre  to  make  its  two  ends  unequally  distant  from  it,  the 
virtual  velocity  in  the  longer,  it  is  at  once  clear,  must  be 
the  greater.  To  preserve  the  equality  of  momenta,  there 
must  be  a  corresponding  augmentation  of  the  quantity  of 
matter  on  the  shorter,  or  diminution  on  the  longer  arm  of 
the  rod.  This  supposed  rod  is  the  lever,  and  it  is  evident 
that  the  same  principle  is  involved  here  as  in  the  inclined 
plane,  with  a  different  phase  only  in  its  presentation.  The 
inclined  plane  brought  the  greater  weight  to  the  same 
height  by  a  longer  way,  and  thus  gave  opportunity  for  the 
accumulation  of  the  excess  of  force  in  the  smaller  weight ; 
and  the  lever  brings  the  greater  weight  to  the  same  height 
through  a  longer  period,  and  this  gives  also  opportunity  for 
the  accumulation  of  the  excess  of  force,  and  thus  an  in 
crease  of  virtual  velocity  to  the  smaller  weight. 

The  principle  of  the  lever  is  in  the  wrheel  and  axle,  and 
also  in  the  pulley,  and  these  together  may  be  indefinitely 
compounded  in  cogs  and  bands  and  tackle-blocks,  and  all 
together  may  be  combined  with  the  varieties  of  the  in 
clined  plane,  and  thus  give  endless  conveniences,  but  in  no 
case  any  creation  and  only  a  transferred  accumulation  of 
power. 

11.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  MAGNETISM. — The  central  force 
from  which  the  universal  globe  of  matter  is  generated,  it 
has  been  seen,  necessarily  induces  a  tendency  to  motion  in 
two  opposite  directions  equally  balancing  each  other,  viz., 
propulsion  from  the  centre  and  a  reaction  in  each  point  of 
force  which  presses  back  in  every  way  towards  the  centre. 
A  careful  insight  into  the  working  of  this  central  force  will 
also  detect  another  virtual  movement  in  its  necessary  prin 
ciples,  and  which,  when  fully  apprehended,  will  be  recog- 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   MAGNETISM.  163 

nized  as  filling  out  a  full  idea  of  the  force  of  magnetism. 
A  globe,  so  formed,  must  be  a  magnet. 

If  two  balls  of  melted  metal  were  brought  in  contact, 
and  gently  pressed  so  as  gradually  to  flatten  each  up  to 
their  centres,  a  peculiar  process  would 'necessarily  be  passed 
through  in  this  changing  of  forms.  When  just  brought  in 
contact,  and  touching  at  but  one  point  in  their  circumfer 
ences,  the  antagonism  would  be  as  that  of  two  simple  agen 
cies.  One  ball  would  not  at  all  press  itself  into  the  other, 
but  each  would  turn  back  the  opposite  ball  into  its  own 
body.  As  the  pressure  went  on,  each  ball  would  have  a 
retorsion  of  itself  within,  of  just  the  same  size  and  shape  as 
that  which  had  been  displaced  from  the  flattened  segment, 
and  when  the  centres  should  meet  there  would  be  a  ball 
within  of  the  size  of  the  original  balls,  of  which  one  hemi 
sphere  would  be  from  the  retorted  portion  of  one  of  the 
original  balls,  and  the  other  hemisphere  from  the  portion 
turned  back  in  the  other.  If  the  original  balls  had  been  of 
two  different  metals  of  equal  densities,  or  of  two  different 
colors,  one  hemisphere  of  the  new  ball  would  be  of  one 
metal,  or  color,  and  the  other  hemisphere  of  the  other. 

To  make  this  the  more  manifest,  where  we  may  follow 
the  forces  in  their  sensible  indices,  we  drop  again  a 
stone  into  a  lake.  As  the  circle  of  undulations  expands,  at 
a  little  distance  from  the  centre  we  will  conceive  an  obsta 
cle  interposing  itself,  as  a  rock  standing  upright  from  the 
bottom.  The  periphery  of  the  circular  undulation,  just  as 
it  touches  this  obstacle,  is  the  index  of  the  simple  agency 
in  one  direction,  as  now  acting  in  a  right  line  from  the 
point  where  the  stone  descended,  and  the  resisting  rock 
may  represent  the  other  simple  agency  at  the  point  of 


164:       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

counteraction.  When  the  forces  thus  meet,  the  action  and 
reaction  being  opposite  and  equal,  the  tendency  at  first 
would  be  to  turn  the  force  in  a  direct  line  back  upon  itself 
towards  the  point  from  whence  it  came  where  the  stone 
fell,  and  give  its  index  in  a  refluent  wave  in  this  right  line. 
But  as  the  re-agency  goes  back  it  gathers  additional  resist 
ance  in  the  attempted  refluent  wave,  and  which  would  per 
petually  increase  in  each  moment  of  the  regressus.  It  thus 
at  once  supervenes  that  the  action  and  reaction  cannot  be 
opposite  and  equal,  in  a  point  removed  back  from  the  rock 
towards  the  place  of  the  fallen  stone,  but  the  resistance  to 
go  back  must  be  greater  away  from  the  rock  than  at  the 
rock.  The  law  for  the  compounding  offerees  and  motions 
at  once  controls,  and  the  result  is,  not  a  refluent  action  in  a 
direct  line,  but  an  action  spreading  each  way  from  the  rock 
on  the  side  of  the  counter-agency,  over  the  surface  of  the 
lake.  The  first  stroke  of  the  outgoing  wave  in  the  circum 
ference  of  the  circle  upon  the  rock  makes  its  refluent  wave, 
and  the  next  stroke  also  its  refluent,  expanding  as  it  flows 
back  with  just  the  force  in  the  aggregate  that  had  brought 
the  circle  up,  and  thus  the  result  is,  a  return  of  just  so 
much  of  the  circle  as  would  unimpeded  have  gone  on  by 
the  rock  now  within  itself  on  the  hither  side  of  the  rock, 
and  this  action  may  be  perpetuated  until  the  refluent  has 
equalled  and  exhausted  all  the  up-coming  waves.  What 
has  gone  back  is  that  which  would  have  gone  on,  and  it 
has  now  registered  itself  in  the  matter  on  one  side  of  the 
rock  instead  of  the  matter  that  lies  on  the  other  side,  and 
thus  the  real  thing,  as  force,  has  moved  and  fixed  itself  in 
a  retorted  position.  If  the  rock  could  have  been  the  force 
of  another  circle  coming  up  in  antagonism,  and  they  could 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   MAGNETISM.  165 

have  been  made  directly  to  meet  and  counterwork  without 
slipping  past  in  the  matter  that  brought  them  together, 
there  would,  as  in  the  melted  metal  above,  have  been  the 
formation  of  two  inner  semi-circles,  or  if  the  action  had 
been  sufficiently  deep  in  the  lake,  two  inner  half-spheres, 
and  each  having  only  the  force  in  its  own  hemisphere  that 
had  been  pushed  back  by  the  force  that  has  gone  into  the 
other.  Thus  two  circles,  or  spheres,  make  a  third,  with 
one-half  within  and  of  the  one,  and  the  other  half  within 
and  of  the  other. 

And  here,  it  is  to  be  noted,  precisely  the  same  thing 
must  occur  in  the  generation  of  forces  into  a  sphere  about 
the  point  of  two  countervailing  single  activities.  One  turns 
the  other  back  upon  itself,  and  the  accumulating  resistance 
in  a  right  line  necessitates  a  compounded  movement  and 
fixing  of  positions  every  way  in  a  sphere  about  the  point 
first  brought  in  contact,  and  one-half  of  this  globe  is  gener 
ated  in  the  forces  on  one  side,  made  by  the  return  upon 
itself  of  one  simple  activity,  and  the  other  half  by  a  return 
upon  itself  of  the  other  simple  activity. 

And  here  it  is  practicable  to  the  eye  of  the  reason  to 
follow  these  moving  activities,  and  see  just  how  they  must 
result  in  fixing  the  matter  which  they  generate,  or  in  leav 
ing  their  register  as  an  independent  accumulation  of 
forces,  in  any  preceding  matter  that  might  be  given,  as  a 
medium  for  indicating  their  currents.  If  we  take  the  case 
of  two  circles  in  a  lake,  there  might  be  conceived  two 
floating  rods  lying  as  a  tangent  to  each  circle,  and  in  the 
same  straight  line  with  each  other  on  the  peripheries  of 
the  same  sides  from  the  centre.  As  we  view  these  circles 
and  the  rods  pointing  towards  each  other,  we  might  say  of 


166        THE   ETEKNAL   PEINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVEBSE. 

the  one  on  the  right  hand  that  its  point  was  the  boreal, 
and  of  the  one  on  the  left  hand  that  its  point  was  the  aus 
tral,  in  reference  each  to  those  points  in  the  undulating  cir 
cumference  of  their  own  circles  as  about  to  touch  each 
other.  If  we  now  conceive  these  expanding  circles  to 
meet,  and  make  each  the  waves  of  the  other  to  be  refluent 
within  itself,  we  shall  have  a  new  circle  made  up  of  two 
semicircles  from  each,  and  within  each,  about  this  point 
of  contact.  If  we  should  conceive  of  the  augmentation  of 
this  new  inner  circle,  by  the  approach  of  the  original  cir 
cles  together,  until  their  centres  should  meet  in  this  point 
of  their  first  contact,  and  which  has  become  the  centre  of 
the  new  inner  circle,  then  the  floating  rods  would  be 
brought  together  at  the  circumference  where  the  half  of 
the  original  circles  now  meet  and  cut  each  other,  and  the 
boreal  point  in  one,  and  the  austral  point  in  the  other, 
would  each  be  retorted  and  turn  each  the  opposite  way  in 
the  refluent  semi-circles  of  the  new  circle  formed  within 
and  from  the  original  two  circles.  At  just  the  point  in  the 
diameter  where  the  two  semi-circles  now  make  one  circle, 
the  two  rods  would  be  as  one,  and  having  both  a  boreal 
and  an  austral  point,  and  lying  as  a  tangent  to  the  circle  at 
right  angles  to  the  diameter.  Thus  with  a  circle  on  the 
surface  of  a  lake ;  and  the  same  result  would  occur  in  the 
sphere,  which  might  be  formed  by  two  refluent  spheres 
down  within  the  lake.  And  this  analogy  is  also  perfect  in 
reference  to  the  space-filling  matter,  which  first  enspheres 
itself  about  an  original  point  of  counteraction.  The  hemi 
spheres  must  have  a  bi-polar  force  at  the  equator. 

This  index  rod,  which  now  may  lie  on  any  part  of  the 
equator,  or,  as  the  same  thing,  at  right  angles  to  any 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   MAGNETISM./^}         167 

equatorial  diameter,  will  lie  parallel  to  the\^fe^f£the 
sphere,  and  may  be  made  to  point  indifferently  eit 
inasmuch  as  it  is  really  the  identification  of  the  two  orig 
inal  rods,  and  may  be  either  a  boreal  or  an  austral  point 
towards  the  same  pole.  The  force,  which  registers  itself 
in  this  index,  is  a  retorsion  on  each  side  of  the  equatorial 
ring  towards  the  poles,  and  thus  directly. on  this  ring  is 
the  mutual  and  neutralizing  limit  between  the  reactions, 
which  must  be  indifferent  to  either.  But  as  there  is  a  de 
parture  from  this  mutual  limit  either  way,  the  refluent 
force  must  take  it  on  its  own  side,  and  control  it  by  its 
own  movement. 

How  it  must  determine  its  direction  is  plain  by  careful 
inspection.     At  the  equator,  the  forces  are  on  each  side  at 
right  angles  to  the  diameter  and  parallel  to  the  axis  of  the 
globe,  while  at  the  poles,  the  forces  are  in  a  point  reac 
tionary  to  the  central  antagonism,  and  thus  up  and  down 
within  the  axis.     The  directions  of  the  force  on  the  side  of 
the  equator  is   in  a  parallel  line  with  the  axis,  and  the 
direction  of  the  force  at  the  pole  is  towards  the  centre  in 
the  line  of  the  axis.     The  direction  of  all  the  forces  on  the 
side  of  the  equator  are  thus  to  meet  in  the  common  polar 
point,  and  become  turned  in  that  point  to  a  line  in  the 
axis  towards  the  centre,  and  there  must  in  this  be  com 
pounded  the  forces  which  work  from  the  equator,  and  the 
conjoint  force  in  the  polar  point  which  works  towards  the 
centre.    This  compounded  movement,  it  is  plain,  will  be  a 
perpetual  turning  of  the  index  from  a  tangent  to  the  cir 
cumference  at  the  equator,  to  a  direction  that  must  go 
athwart  the  circumference,  and  thus  a  perpetually  increas 
ing  dip  must  be  secured,  making  it  at  right  angles  to  the 


168       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

axis  at  the  distance  of  45°,  and  in  the  direction  of  the  axis, 
towards  the  centre  when  over  the  pole.  This  will  be  the 
same  with  the  austral  dip  on  the  boreal  side  of  the  globe, 
and  with  the  boreal  dip  on  the  austral  side.  The  forces 
of  the  sphere  necessarily  determine  for  it  a  magnetic,  polar 
direction  and  dip  on  each  side  of  the  equator. 

We  may  also  look  immediately  into  the  operation  of 
the  sphere-forming  process  as  given  in  section  8th,  and 
we  shall  attain  a  similar,  and  even  more  comprehensive  re 
sult. 

The  central  antagonism  turns  each  its  opposite  simple 
activity  back  upon  itself,  and  thereby  generates  the  polar 
points;  these  hold  the  energizing  of  the  activities  from 
pushing  further  back  in  a  straight  line,  and  thus  the  equa 
torial  ring  is  at  once  elevated ;  and  then  the  perpetuation 
of  the  central  energizing  pushes  the  simple  activities  in 
each  point  of  the  equatorial  ring  each  way,  in  meridional 
lines,  quite  up  to  the  poles,  and  all  such  meridional  lines  in 
their  contiguity  make  a  spherical  layer  of  molecular  forces 
over  each  hemisphere,  and  in  this  continuation  of  working, 
the  globe  grows  to  its  determined  size.  We  will  take 
these  points  of  molecular  forces  in  the  equatorial  ring,  and 
subject  their  determined  progress  to  a  careful  insight. 

Each  point  of  force  in  the  equatorial  ring  is  an  antago 
nism  of  two  simple  activities  counter-working  each  other 
in  a  direction  parallel  to  the  axis,  and  thus  the  whole  equa 
torial  plane  is  made  up  of  antagonist  forces,  all  working  in 
their  directions  of  counter-agency  parallel  with  the  central 
antagonism,  for  the  aggregate  of  points  in  the  whole  equa 
torial  plane  are  but  the  edges  of  the  concentric  layers  as 
they  meet  in  their  equators.  The  points  nearest  the  centre 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   MAGNETISM.  169 

will  be  in  the  equatorial  edge  of  the  smaller,  and  those 
further  from  the  centre  will  be  in  the  equatorial  edges  of 
the  larger  spherical  layers.  If,  then,  we  take  any  point  in 
the  equatorial  plane,  it  will  be  a  point  of  force  in  the  equa 
torial  edge  of  some  spherical  layer,  and  will  balance  itself 
back  upon  the  polar  point  in  the  direction  of  the  merid 
ional  line,  and  by  the  equilibration  of  forces  that  lie  in  and 
all  through  that  line.  We  take,  then,  any  such  point,  and 
consider  it  as  a  molecule  of  matter  that  has  its  polar  direc 
tion  in  the  line  of  its  two  counter  working  simple  activities, 
and  which  must  be  parallel  with  the  antagonism  of  the 
central  point,  and  with  the  axis  of  the  universal  sphere. 
The  central  point  works  back  upon  the  polar  point  in  an 
exact  line  of  action  and  reaction  through  all  the  interven 
ing  points,  and  thus  each  molecule  is  in  the  same  polar 
direction  as  all  the  others  in  the  axis  on  its  side  of  the 
centre,  and  all  on  one  side  of  the  centre  of  opposite  polar 
directions  to  all  the  molecules  on  the  other  side  of  the 
centre.  But,  while  the  central  point  thus  works  exactly 
back  in  molecules  of  the  same  polar  directions,  no  point 
out  of  the  centre  can  work  back  upon  the  pole  in  mole 
cules  of  the  same  exact  polar  directions.  The  point  out 
of  the  centre,  and  in  the  equatorial  plane,  begins  with  a 
molecule  that  has  its  polar  direction  parallel  with  the 
centre,  but  the  polar  point  against  which  it  balances  has 
its  polar  direction  towards  the  centre  and  in  the  line  of  the 
axis ;  this  beginning  equatorial  point  must  thus  have  the 
direction  turned  gradually  and  completely  about,  in  the 
molecules  of  the  meridional  line,  by  the  time  the  action  has 
reached  the  polar  point  and  balanced  all  the  molecules  in 
the  meridional  line  upon  it.  The  equatorial  molecule  will 


170        THE   ETEKNAL   PEINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVEKSE. 

have  its  polar  direction  parallel  with  the  axis;  the  polar 
molecule  will  have  its  polar  direction  in  the  axis  towards 
the  centre ;  and  thus  all  molecules  in  the  meridional  line 
between  the  equatorial  and  the  polar  molecules  must  have 
their  polar  directions  conformed  to  their  respective  posi 
tions  in  this  meridional  line.  The  next  from  the  equatorial 
must  converge  from  a  parallel  to  a  slight  inclination  of 
polar  direction  towards  the  axis,  and  the  next  to  that  a 
little  more,  till  midway,  or  at  the  45th  degree,  the  polar 
direction  of  the  molecule  must  be  at  right  angles  with  the 
axis,  and  so  onward  turning  about  to  the  pole,  where  the 
molecule  resting  on  the  polar  point  must  have  a  polar 
direction  turned  completely  round  and  working  towards 
the  centre  in  the  line  of  the  axis. 

This  principle  of  polar  direction  in  the  meridional  mole 
cules  must  necessarily  determine  the  magnetic  dip,  and  this 
must  begin  from  a  parallel  with  the  axis  in  the  equatorial 
plane  throughout,  and  terminate  through  the  meridional 
line  by  a  direction  to  the  centre  in  the  axis  at  the  pole, 
having  in  that  distance  completely  retrograded  its  former 
direction.  The  opposite  poles  must  have  their  magnetic 
dip  the  converse  of  each  other  through  all  the  molecules  of 
their  respective  hemispheres. 

Bring,  then,  two  magnets  together,  and  force  their 
spheres  of  polar  action  to  invade  and  interpenetrate  each 
other,  the  similar  poles  of  each  would  have  their  molecular 
action  and  dip  opposite  to  each  other,  and  each  towards  its 
own  centre,  and  they  must  repel  each  other;  while  the 
opposite  poles  so  interfering  would  have  the  molecular 
action  and  dip  conformed  to  each  other,  and  they  must 
therefore  attract  one  the  other.  The  molecular  action  and 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   ELECTRICITY.  1Y1 

dip  is  neutralized  in  the  equator,  and  thus  mutual  attrac 
tion  and  repulsion  must  there  be  neutralized,  and  the  re 
spective  attractions  and  repulsions  must  augment  to  their 
maximum  in  the  interfering  poles. 

Thus  the  equatorial  and  polar  counteractions  determine 
the  necessary  laws  of  magnetism,  as  the  central  action  and 
reaction  determine  the  necessary  laws  of  gravity. 

12.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  ELECTRICITY. — The  balanced  ac 
tion,  between  the  equatorial  plane  and  the  poles,  which 
holds  every  molecule  in  its  place  of  static  rest  through 
every  meridional  line  of  every  spherical  layer,  is  the  great 
principle  of  magnetism ;  the  interruption  of  this  continued 
static  rest  in  any  portion  of  the  superficial  matter,  and  the 
consequent  tension  in  the  interrupted  parts  to  recover 
themselves  and  restore  the  balance,  is  the  great  principle 
of  electricity.  This  pressure  from  the  equator  to  the  pole, 
and  in  the  stability  of  the  polar  point  a  reciprocal  pressure 
back  from  the  pole  upon  the  equator,  we  have  now  to  con 
ceive  may  be  interrupted  in  particular  places  by  various 
agencies.  Those  several  interrupting  agencies  will  be  here 
after  examined  in  their  determining  principles,  such  as  light 
and  heat  and  chemical  decomposition,  and  to  which  may 
be  added  mechanical  friction,  the  principle  of  which  has 
been  already  apprehended ;  but  these  causes  and  their  oc 
casions  of  working  in  the  interruption  of  the  magnetic  force 
need  not  here  be  regarded.  We  need  only  anticipate,  that 
causes  and  occasions  will  occur  to  break  up  this  continuity 
of  equal  reciprocal  agency  between  the  equatorial  plane 
and  the  polar  points,  and  that  thus  the  molecules  will  in 
some  places  be  turned  in  their  polar  directions  away  from 
their  proper  lines  in  the  magnetic  meridians,  and  in  this 


172       THE   ETEENAL   PEINCIPLES    OF   THE   TJNIVEKSE. 

anticipation  we  shall  find  all  that  is  necessary  for  clearly 
attaining  the  grand  principles  which  must  determine  all  the 
laws  in  the  experimental  facts  of  electricity. 

Some  substances,  then,  in  the  ongoing  of  the  forces  of 
nature,  must  be  supposed  to  be  brought  into  combination, 
that  will  admit  of  their  respective  component  molecules 
being  more  or  less  easily  turned  from  their  proper  magnetic 
polar  direction,  as  would  be  their  natural  position  in  the 
magnetic  meridian,  and  when  thus  deranged,  some  of  these 
substances  will  be  very  slow  and  stubborn  in  permitting 
their  molecules  to  come  again  into  their  proper  iiagnetic 
arrangement.  Let  such  deranged  substances  occupy  any 
place  in  the  sphere  between  the  equator  and  one  of  the  poles, 
and  they  must  at  once  interrupt  the  reciprocal  action  be 
tween  the  equator  and  the  pole  and  sunder  the  magnetic  me 
ridional  continuity.  There  will  then  necessarily  at  once  en 
sue  a  tension  in  the  equatorial  force  to  overcome  and  remove 
this  interruption,  and  to  rest  itself  again,  in  the  continued 
line  of  magnetic  reciprocity,  upon  the  resisting  static  force 
that  comes  up  towards  it  from  the  pole.  Such  struggle 
and  tension  to  overcome  this  interruption  is  the  awakened 
and  active  force  of  electricity.  It  is  really  the  magnetic 
force  struggling  against  interposing  and  interrupting  de 
rangement.  Magnetism  and  electricity  differ,  as  static 
polar  rest  differs  from  the  tension  that  struggles  to  re 
move  an  interruption  that  it  may  again  be  at  rest. 

Now  such  tension  must  manifestly  have  its  two  conspir 
ing  directions ;  the  equatorial  force  will  go  out  positively 
and  actively  to  find  its  reciprocal  static  point  and  rest  itself 
against  it,  and  this  static  polar  point,  unsustained  by  its 
positive  antagonism  on  its  equatorial  side,  can  only  nega- 


THE   PKINCIPLE   OF    ELECTKICITY.  173 

tively  struggle  for  such  sustaining  reciprocity,  by  maintain 
ing  itself  against  the  central  antagonism  that  would  go  be 
yond  it  in  fixing  a  new  polar  point,  and  force  this  central 
activity  to  go  up  in  the  equator  and  come  down  in  the 
meridional  line  to  the  pole,  and  there  meet  and  support 
itself  in  counteraction.  There  must,  therefore,  be  two 
forces ;  one  positively  struggling  to  move  forward,  the 
other  negatively  struggling  not  to  move  back.  We  shah1 
therefore  have  two  kinds  of  electricity,  properly  the  posi 
tive  and  the  negative;  and  no  interruption  to  the  polar 
force  can  anywhere  occur,  but  it  must  at  once  induce  this 
positive  and  negative  tension.  The  deranged  substance, 
interrupting  the  magnetic  continuity,  has  its  molecular 
polarity  all  the  wrong  way,  and  each  molecule  turned  so 
that  the  end  of  its  axis  which  should  be  towards  the  pole  is 
now  toward  the  equator,  and  thus  this  whole  interrupting 
substance  is  turned  with  its  positive  towards  the  positive 
tension  that  struggles  against  it,  and  its  negative  towards 
the  polar  negative  that  holds  itself  not  to  go  back,  and 
therefore,  the  positive  tension  must  push  or  repel  opposing 
positive  tension,  and  negative  tension  must  stand  against 
opposite  negative  tension;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
positive  must  constantly  push  into  the  negative  that  is 
before  it,  and  the  negative  constantly  receive  the  positive 
that  comes  up  to  it ;  and  thus  the  fact  in  experience  must 
ever  be  that  opposite  electricities  will  attract  and  similar 
electricities  repel  each  other.  This  is  similar  in  expression 
but  not  in  principle  to  the  attraction  and  repulsion  of  mag 
netism.  In  magnetism  the  whole  magnet  is  a  unit,  and 
the  equator  or  middle  point  neutral,  and  the  polar  forces 
and  dips  are  opposite  to  each  other  on  opposite  sides  of  the 


174       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

equatorial  plane,  and  thus  here  the  principle  is,  that  simi 
lar  dips  and  forces  must  throw  out,  and  opposite  dips  and 
forces  must  crowd  in  each  other;  'but  in  electricity  the 
whole  has  no  unity,  for  this  has  been  broken  up  and  the 
entire  force  of  electricity  is  to  recover  it,  and  the  opposite 
electricities  work  in  the  same  directions,  one  positively  and 
the  other  negatively,  to  join  and  restore  the  unity.  There 
is  no  centre  to  the  electric  tension ;  all  is  in  one  direction, 
and  hence  any  division  of  an  electric  cannot  make  the 
parts  to  be  now  complete  wholes,  as  in  a  divided  magnet, 
but  must  still  be  each  one  only  another  fragment  of  the 
whole. 

It  is  also  further  manifest,  if  any  substance  may  be 
made  to  penetrate  this  deranged  molecular  substance  that 
interrupts  the  magnetic  continuity,  and  such  penetrating 
substance  have  all  its  molecules  facile  and  ready  to  come 
to  their  proper  polarity,  that  this  penetrating  substance, 
uniting  the  positive  and  negative  electricities  through  the 
interrupting  molecules,  will  at  once  bridge  over  the  im 
passable  chasm,  and  in  its  continuous  polarity  bring  the 
positive  on  one  side  to  rest  itself  against,  and  equilibrate 
with,  the  negative  on  the  other  side.  Such  facile  continua 
tion  of  the  common  polarity  would  be  a  properly  conduct 
ing  substance,  and  all  such  substances  that  when  deranged 
in  molecular  polarity  readily  recovered  themselves,  and 
arranged  their  molecules  by  a  slight  tension  urging  thereto 
according  to  the  magnetic  meridian,  would  properly  be 
known  as  electrical  conductors.  The  absence  of  conduc 
tors  might  leave  the  electric  tension  to  be  permanently  re 
sisted,  or  this  tension  to  so  accumulate  that  it  should  burst 
violently  through  the  interrupting  obstacle,  and  restore  the 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   HEAT.  175 

equilibrium  in  a  destructive  explosion,  while  the  interven 
tion  of  the  conductor  might  restore  the  balance  by  a  grad 
ual  and  silent  passage. 

13.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  HEAT. — We  have  traced  the 
necessary  working  of  the  antagonist  force  according  to  its 
own  intrinsic  nature  and  constitution,  and  have  found  from 
it  the  principles  respectively  of  Motion,  Sphericity,  Gravity, 
Falling  bodies,  Magnetism,  and  Electricity.  But  the  an 
tagonist  force  does  not  work  alone,  the  diremptive  force 
perpetually  works  in  and  with  it,  and  its  generated  results 
keep  equal  pace  with  those  of  the  antagonist  working 
through  the  universal  sphere.  The  diremptive  working 
does  not  hinder  the  antagonist  activity  in  the  securing  of 
the  above  principles,  but  many  other  results  are  demanded 
in  a  completed  nature  of  things,  and  which  no  mere  antag 
onist  forces  could  supply,  and  which  can  only  be  secured  in 
the  working  of  the  diremptive  force  according  to  its  nature 
and  constitution.  We  now,  therefore,  fix  the  insight  of  the 
reason  directly  on  the  diremptive  force  working  at  the  cen 
tre,  and  find  what  must  come  of  it.  In  it  we  shall  first  find 
the  principle  of  Heat. 

While  the  antagonist  force  generates  a  sphere  by  a  per 
petual  accumulation  of  concentric  spherical  layers,  the  di 
remptive  force  will  work  itself  in  between  all  these  concen 
tric  layers  and  dispart  them  by  its  own  peculiar  energy. 
The  diremptive  activity  is  in  unity  with  the  antagonist 
activity  from  the  first,  and  both  work  on  coetaneously,  and 
while  the  antagonism  secures  the  results  we  have  already 
traced  both  unhelped  and  unhindered  by  the  diremptive 
working,  yet  could  not  the  diremptive  activity  secure  any 
manifested  results  separate  from  its  combination  with  the 


176       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

working  antagonism.  Its  action  is  perpetually  away  from 
itself  in  every  limit  that  might  be  taken,  and  this  perpetual 
going  off  in  simple  activities,  on  each  side  of  any  limit  in 
which  it  might  be  set  to  work,  could  only  issue  in  continual 
self-dissipation,  and  emptying  itself  from  the  limit  with  no 
capability  of  accumulations  at  the  limit.  But  in  working 
within  and  against  the  simple  activities  of  the  antagonist 
force,  it  at  once  attains  consistency  and  persistency  in  space. 
Its  outgoings  meet  the  antagonist  incomings,  and  thereby 
generate  new  counteractions,  in  which  there  are  other  de 
termining  principles  as  immutable  as  any  we  have  yet  at 
tained  in  the  ensphering  and  space-filling  antagonisms. 

The  primitive  central  antagonism  is  conceived  as  two 
simple  activities  meeting  and  counter-working  in  a  common 
limit,  and  we  now  conceive  the  diremption  to  be  a  begin 
ning  in  that  common  limit  and  sending  out  two  simple  op 
posite  activities  from  it.  The  two  mutually  and  necessarily 
determine  the  direction  of  each  other's  activity.  The  an 
tagonism  being  first,  would  wake  the  diremption  within  it 
to  spread  each  way  in  divellency ;  and  the  diremption  being 
first,  would  wake  the  antagonism  on  each  side  of  it  to  push 
together  in  counter-agency ;  and  both  being  in  unity  of 
agency,  would  counterwork  each  other ;  and  thus  in  any 
method  of  possible  communion,  the  antagonist  and  diremp- 
tive  forces  must  work  upon  and  against  each  other.  From 
the  very  nature  of  the  agency  in  such  combination,  we  may 
see,  moreover,  that  the  result  must  be  a  perpetual  palpita 
tion,  or  systole  and  diastole  play  between  them  of  a  very 
peculiar  and  specific  kind.  Keeping  in  mind  the  order  of 
the  sphere-forming  process,  so  minutely  and  carefully  fol 
lowed  out  in  the  antagonist  working,  we  will  now  as  care 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   HEA.T.  ITT 

fully  trace  this  process  of  diremptive  working  through  the 
whole  sphere,  and  which  must  necessarily  be  in  the  con 
verse  order  of  movement  and  result,  inasmuch  as  the  di- 
remption  cannot  work  and  manifest  itself  at  all  save  in  an 
antithesis  to  the  antagonism. 

We  fix  on  the  limit  in  the  central  antagonist  force  where 
act  meets  act  in  counteraction,  and  in  that  limit  we  now 
find  also  a  diremption.  The  antagonisms  pushed  each 
back  upon  themselves,  and  made  two  polar  points  of  force 
in  a  line  on  opposite  sides  of  the  limit  in  which  the  simple 
activities  had  met,  and  these  points,  being  thus  taken  and 
held  by  the  newly  engendered  forces  in  them,  forbade  the 
antagonisms  now  to  go  further  back  on  opposite  sides  in  a 
line,  and  by  the  second  principle  of  motion  necessitated  a 
rising  out  on  all  sides  in  an  equatorial  plane  or  ring,  mid 
way  between  the  polar  points  and  transverse  to  the  axis. 
Even  so,  in  converse  effect,  must  this  diremptive  action 
traverse  the  same  course.  In  meeting  the  simple  activities 
of  the  antagonism  and  pushing  back  upon  them,  it  does  the 
same  work  on  each  that  each  one  was  doing  on  the  other, 
adding  this  energy  of  the  diremptive  working  to  the  former 
pushing  of  the  antagonisms,  as  it  disparts  itself  each  way 
while  standing  between  them.  This  disparting  of  the  di 
remptive  action  in  the  very  limit  of  the  meeting  antago 
nisms  lengthens  the  line  in  the  direction  of  the  polar  points, 
until  the  static  resistance  of  the  polar  points  equilibrates 
the  diremptive  action,  and  so  loosens  or  disparts  the  antag 
onism  at  its  central  limit  that  the .  diremption  must  now 
turn,  as  the  antagonism  did,  to  a  direction  transverse  to  its 
first  action.  This  necessitates  a  pushing  out  against  the 
equatorial  ring  of  the  first  antagonist  layer  from  the  central 
12 


178       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

point,  and  a  passing  between  that  layer  and  the  central 
point,  and  separating  the  antagonist  layer  from  the  central 
point  by  interposing  a  diremptive  layer.  This  diremptive 
action  then  again  pushes  out  the  antagonist  polar  points, 
both  by  the  central  working  and  the  working  in  the  layer 
without  the  centre,  and  this  loosens  the  first  antagonist 
layer  hi  its  equatorial  ring  and  passes  again  transversely 
through,  and  against  the  next  layer  in  its  equator. 

As  then,  the  equatorial  antagonisms  must  flow  down  on 
each  side  in  the  meridional  lines,  and  at  length  rest  from 
ah1  ways  upon  the  polar  points,  and  thus  complete  their 
circuit  and  equilibrate  the  movement  of  the  antagonism, 
even  so  must  the  central  diremptive  working  pass  through 
the  disparted  equatorial  antagonisms,  and  down  on  each 
side  between  the  outer  and  inner  meridians  in  the  concen 
tric  antagonist  spherical  layers,  and  occupy  the  disparted 
space  between  the  layers  in  each  hemisphere  from  the 
equator  to  the  poles.  As  then,  again,  the  equilibrated 
movement  of  the  antagonism  through  the  equatorial  ring 
down  against  the  poles  has  stopped  all  further  passage  of 
the  generating  force  in  that  direction,  and  the  central 
working  must  push  the  antagonisms  out  each  way  again  in 
new  polar  points,  to  be  resisted  by  them  and  turned  again 
through  the  equatorial  plane  in  new  meridional  lines,  mak 
ing  new  concentric  spherical  layers  in  each  hemisphere; 
just  so  must  the  diremptive  force  run  over  again  its  circuit, 
and  elongate  the  polar  line,  and  loosen  the  equatorial  an 
tagonisms,  and  pass  through  and  expand  the  space  between 
the  concentric  layers  at  the  equator,  and  then  pass  down  in 
each  hemisphere  disparting  the  layers  to  the  poles.  Thus, 
while  the  sphere  is  engendered  and  augmented  by  the  per- 


THE   PEINCIPLE   OF   HEAT.  179 

petual  working  of  the  antagonist  force,  it  is  also  continually 
disparted  and  filled  in  every  concentric  layer  by  the  di 
remptive  force. 

Let  it  also  be  carefully  noted,  that  as  the  diremptive 
action  elongates  the  axis  by  pressing  back  the  polar  points 
and  filling  in  the  centre  by  its  own  force,  it  makes  the 
sphere  to  take  on  a  prolate  form ;  and  that  as  it  passes 
through  the  disparted  antagonisms  at  the  equator,  and 
presses  out  against  the  spherical  layer  beyond,  it  pushes 
oat  the  equatorial  region  and  thus  makes  the  sphere  to 
take  on  an  oblate  form;  and  that  therefore  a  perpetual 
pulsation  through  every  spherical  layer  must  be  kept  up 
with  every  diremptive  palpitation  of  the  centre.  When 
the  whole  sphere  is  formed,  and  all  its  concentric  layers 
filled  in  with  the  diremptive  forces,  if  then  the  diremptive 
action  keep  on  at  the  centre,  the  space  between  the  layers 
being  a  plenum,  the  throb  at  the  centre  is  felt  all  through 
to  the  circumference  instantaneously,  except  so  far  as  the 
yielding  and  elastic  spring  of  the  diremptive  substance  may 
furnish  occasion  for  a  propagated  and  thus  a  successive 
motion.  As  the  diremptive  movement  passes  in  the  equa 
torial  plane  across  the  margins  of  the  concentric  layers  of 
each  hemisphere  that  meet  in  this  plane,  the  oscillation  of 
the  layer  must  make  its  vibration  of  every  molecule  in 
the  layer,  and  thus  successively  of  every  molecule  in  the 
sphere. 

Now,  this  diremptive  force  is  heat  in  its  essential  being, 
and  the  principle  of  its  working  must  determine  all  its  phe 
nomenal  facts  and  their  laws.  In  its  combination  with  the 
antagonist  forces  it  becomes  fixed,  and  goes  to  the  compo 
sition  of  the  new  substance  in  a  static  state,  and  of  course 


180       THE   ETEKNAL   PEINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

induces  no  vibrations,  and  imparts  no  sensible  heat,  except 
as  in  chemical  dissolution  it  becomes  liberated.  Its  neces 
sity  of  working  in  every  part  of  its  being  is  by  a  disparting 
and  divellent  action,  on  occasion  of  any  force  within  or 
against  which  it  may  exert  its  diremptive  energy,  and  thus 
must  expand  every  substance  into  which  it  enters  in  its 
free  state.  It  may  be  made  to  permeate  any  substance  so 
as  only  to  fill  in  and  occupy  all  the  interstices  between  and 
around  the  molecules,  without  at  all  parting  or  separating 
the  molecules  themselves,  and  as  thus  held  in  a  quiescent 
state  it  will  be  latent  heat.  It  may  escape  from  one  sub 
stance  through  the  intervening  medium,  and  in  its  passage 
through  a  fluid  medium  it  must  follow  its  order  of  move 
ment  as  already  given  in  a  vibratory  process,  and  as  passing 
out  in  vibrations  all  ways  from  a  thermal  source  it  will  give 
radiated  heat.  While  the  same  substance  is  radiating  its 
heat,  it  may  also  be  receiving  the  radiations  from  other 
substances,  and  such  reception  of  radiated  heat  will  give 
absorbed  heat.  Some  of  the  radiations  meeting  a  sub 
stance  that  absorbs  with  difficulty,  must  pass  off  from  it  and 
give  reflected  heat.  The  principles  determining  reflection, 
refraction,  diffraction  and  polarization  are  all  here  included, 
and  may  all  be  exposed  in  experimental  facts,  showing  that 
the  laws  in  the  facts  were  all  necessitated  in  an  immutable 
principle.  If  the  diremptive  action  not  only  presses  be 
tween  and  about  the  molecules  so  as  to  expand  the  sub 
stance,  but  goes  so  far  as  to  loosen  and  thoroughly  isolate 
the  molecules  that  they  may  freely  pass  by  and  over  each 
other,  we  shah1  have  thermal  fluidity  /  a  more  intense 
diremptive  action,  separating  the  molecules  from  each 
other  and  forcing  the  particles  asunder  at  some  distance, 


CHEMICAL   PRINCIPLES.  181 

will  make  thermal  evaporation  y  and  a  greater  intensity  of 
heat  that  breaks  up  the  substantial  combination  of  the 
molecules  themselves,  and  violently  sunders  the  constitu 
tional  forces  of  the  materials,  will  be  combustion. 

In  the  universal  sphere,  the  diremptive  and  antagonist 
activities  will  equilibrate,  when  the  working  at  the  centre 
is  just  balanced  by  the  reactions  from  the  outlying  spheri 
cal  layers,  and  the  diremptive  and  antagonist  forces  run 
each  their  own  circuit  without  invading  and  breaking  up 
one  the  other.  In  this  state  of  antagonist  and  diremptive 
equilibration  we  shall  have  the  material  universe  in  that 
state  that  may  be  known  as  the  primitive  ether. 

14.  CHEMICAL  PRINCIPLES. — It  is  not  possible  that  an 
tagonist  forces  can  come  into  any  combinations  and  thus 
form  chemical  compounds  by  themselves  alone.  The  only 
manner  of  their  working  is  by  ensphering  themselves  about 
a  central  point,  and  the  entire  globe  of  such  forces  must  be 
of  single  and  homogeneous  molecules  throughout.  But 
with  the  conjoint  working  of  a  diremptive  force  in  a  con 
verse  direction  to  the  antagonist  working,  there  is  full 
occasion  given  for  chemical  combinations,  and  indeed  a 
necessity  that  such  should  ultimately  be  effected.  When 
the  diremptive  action  has  diffused  its  disparting  forces 
between  all  the  layers  of  the  universal  sphere,  and  there  is 
an  equilibration  of  both  the  antagonist  and  diremptive 
forces  in  their  reactions  upon  the  centre,  and  thus  the  uni 
versal  sphere  has  completed  its  full  destined  size,  there  may 
still  be  a  continued  generation  of  both  these  forces  at  the 
centre,  and  instead  of  augmenting  the  size  of  the  sphere 
they  will  only  serve  to  fill  in  and  increase  its  density. 

When  the  exact  balance  is  gained,  the  spherical  layers 


182       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

of  the  antagonist  forces  are  not  only  disparted  from  each 
other  by  the  infusion  of  the  heat-force  in  its  layers  between 
them,  but  there  is  the  loosening  also  of  the  molecules  in 
the  layers  of  the  antagonist  forces  by  the  permeating  heat- 
force,  so  that  they  just  maintain  their  magnetic  polar  direc 
tions  in  their  meridional  lines,  and  are  at  the  same  time 
just  ready  to  dispart  and  pass  over  and  by  each  other  in  a 
movable  fluid  state.  The  whole  mass  is  just  loosened, 
molecule  from  molecule,  and  may  be  called  a  fluid,  only  the 
molecules  are  all  yet  quiescent  and  not  flowing.  If,  then, 
the  antagonist  and  diremptive  agencies  keep  on  in  exact 
equilibration  of  their  generating  activities,  there  must  be  a 
perpetual  going  out  of  new  forces  of  both  kinds  into  the 
universal  sphere,  but  as  the  antagonist  action  is  just  dis 
solved  by  the  diremptive  action,  there  can  be  no  crowding 
back  of  the  polar  points  and  extending  of  the  axis  by  a 
retorsion  of  the  antagonist  simple  activities  upon  them 
selves,  and  as  there  can  be  secured  no  extended  static  in 
this  direction,  so  there  can  be  no  pushing  out  of  the  trans 
verse  equatorial  ring  and  the  successive  enlargement  of  the 
sphere ;  and  for  the  same  reason  there  can  be  no  prolate 
and  dilate  movement  in  the  going  out  of  the  diremptive 
accumulations,  and  thus  no  filling  in  successively  of  the 
heat-force  any  further  between  the  spherical  layers.  The 
consistency  of  the  layers  is  all  dissolved,  and  thus  extension 
and  vibration  must  wholly  cease.  And  yet  generation  of 
both  forces  goes  on,  and  flows  out  from  the  central  point 
into  the  sphere,  and  can  thus  only  thicken  and  make  denser 
the  primitive  ether  without  extending  its  volume.  The 
mass  only  becomes  a  thicker  fluid,  without  yet  any  flow. 
But  without  at  all  following  here  the  determinations 


CHEMICAL   PRINCIPLES.  183 

of  such  accumulation  and  thickening  of  the  primitive  ether, 
which  will  find  its  more  fit  opportunity  hereafter,  it  is 
sufficiently  manifest  that  in  such  movement  and  accumu 
lation  of  forces,  there  must  come  new  and  varied  combina 
tions.  The  antagonist  and  diremptive  activities  meet  each 
other,  and  interwork  and  dissolve  and  counterwork  each 
other  in  many  new  varieties  of  action,  and  we  have  opened 
at  once  all  the  necessities  for  chemical  affinities,  chemical 
equivalents,  and  chemical  combinations  and  decomposi 
tions. 

If  one  molecule  of  the  antagonist  forces  be  exactly 
balanced  by  the  working  of  a  diremptive  force  in  the  very 
limit  of  its  simple  activities,  we  have  a  new  chemical  atom; 
entirely  a  new  substance ;  and  competent  to  stand  out  alone 
in  complete  static  individuality.  So,  if  two  antagonist 
forces  are  just  balanced  by  a  diremptive  force  between 
them,  or  a  number  of  antagonist  forces  around  a  central 
diremption,  or  a  varied  number  of  limited  diremptive  activ 
ities  by  an  equilibrating  number,  intensity,  and  direction 
of  antagonisms ;  in  all  such  cases  there  comes  the  neces 
sity  for  all  chemical  laws.  The  forces  and  single  activities 
cannot  equilibrate  and  hold  each  other  in  static  rest  with 
out  inducing  the  whole  doctrine  of  chemical  equivalents, 
and  only  such  forces  can  run  to  each  other's  counteracting 
help  and  support  as  stand  in  the  line  of  reciprocal  activi 
ties,  and  which  must  introduce  the  whole  doctrine  of  chem 
ical  affinities. 

Simple  chemical  substances  will  not  be  single  antagonist 
forces,  but  such  combinations  of  the  antagonist  and  diremp 
tive  activities,  in  their  most  simple  working,  as  no  applica 
tion  of  other  combinations  can  unloose  and  decompose. 


184:       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   TNI  VERSE. 

The  combining  forces  must  come  together  in  specific  pro 
portions,  and  continue  in  combination  until  neutralizing  or 
countervailing  forces  again  destroy  their  cohesion.  The 
combination  cannot  be  a  substance  that  shall  give  the 
qualities  of  either  ingredient,  for  the  combined  forces  lose 
all  their  former  mode  of  activity,  and  together  make  a 
third  thing  that  annihilates  the  old  modes  of  activity  in 
the  new.  As  the  combination  wholly  suspended  and  for 
the  time  indeed  destroyed  the  elemental  forces  in  their 
old  mode  of  action,  so  an  analysis  of  this  substance  must 
destroy  the  force  that  constituted  it,  and  give  occasion 
again  for  the  elementary  activities  to  work  after  their 
former  manner. 

The  perpetuated  working  at  the  centre  must  induce  an 
elementary  chaos  of  prepared  forces,  that  on  occasion  must 
come  together  in  chemical  combinations. 

15.  CRYSTALLINE  PRINCIPLES. — The  free  working  of 
the  antagonist  activities  can  only  form  globes  which  have 
their  single  axis ;  and  the  chemical  compositions  that  may 
press  their  molecules  together  in  a  new  force,  thereby 
making  a  new  substance,  and  which  may  harden  it  to  a 
body  in  a  rigid  state,  can  only  have  the  one  axis  which  the 
equipoise  of  gravity  must  give  to  it  through  its  centre. 
The  forces  in  mere  chemical  affinities  can  make  combina 
tions  only  in  bipolar  and  uniaxial  bodies,  and  which  poles 
and  axis  must  be  determined  by  the  aggregate  of  gravi 
tating  force,  and  not  by  any  principle  of  the  combining 
affinities. 

But  in  the  converse  activities  of  the  antagonist  and 
diremptive  forces,  it  is  plain  that  there  must  be  occasions 
for  their  mutual  action  and  reaction  in  directly  tranverse 


CRYSTALLINE   PRINCIPLES.  185 

directions.  The  diremptive  force  may  stand  between  and 
balance  two  antagonist  forces  that  press  together,  and  this 
in  a  transverse  direction  at  right-angles,  or  at  any  oblique 
angle,  and  such  composition  of  forces  must  make  a  nu 
cleus,  that  in  process  shall  build  up  around  it  a  cube  or  a 
rhombohedron ;  and  if  the  balancing  diremptive  force  grad 
ually  and  regularly  diminish  as  the  combination  goes  on, 
it  will  necessitate  the  cutting  off  of  the  solid  angles  of  the 
before-mentioned  geometrical  solids,  and  make  them  to  be 
come  right  angled  or  rhomboidal  octahedrons.  Thus  may 
any  variety  of  regular  geometrical  solids  be  built  up  by 
accordant  forces  in  composition,  that  shall  work  towards 
each  other  in  such  directions  and  degrees  as  to  balance 
themselves  in  the  axes  of  such  solids.  The  whole  principle 
of  crystallogeny  is  in  this  combination  of  heat  with  polar 
matter,  or  the  bringing  together  of  these  converse  forces 
in  such  ratios  and  directions  as  will  secure  multipolar  and 
multiaxial  combinations.  The  whole  geometrical  solid  is 
determined  in  its  faces  and  edges  and  solid  angles  by  the 
axes  and  polarity  which  the  working  forces  secure,  and  the 
degrees  of  energy  respectively  exerted.  And  inasmuch  as 
the  working  forces  must  also  determine  the  superposition 
of  the  facial  layers,  so  the  same  crystal  must  always  have 
its  permanent  determined  planes  of  cleavage,  and  the  spe 
cific  polish  of  the  faces. 

The  gravitating  force  has  the  principle  which  deter 
mines  the  fluid  rain  to  fall  in  spherical  drops,  and  the 
crystalline  principle  determines  the  falling  snow  to  arrange 
itself  in  star-shaped  needles,  and  the  hail  has  these  con 
gealed  in  diverse  polyhedrons. 


186       THE  ETERNAL  PRINCIPLES   OF  THE  UNIVERSE. 

16.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  WORLD-FORMATIONS. — The  at 
tained  conception  of  the  universal  sphere  in  its  generated 
and  accumulating  ethereal  matter,  and  the  perpetual  work 
ing  of  the  central  antagonist  and  diremptive  activities  con 
stantly  making  new  chemical  compositions,  and  thus  also 
new  substances  in  nature,  and  moving  the  primitive  matter 
into  new  forces,  must  give  the  occasion  for  much  further 
tracing  the  immutable  principles  to  necessary  determina 
tions,  and  without  forecasting  what  we  may  find  we  will 
pass  on  and  see  what  the  clear  insight  shall  disclose. 

The  circuits  of  the  two  primal  forces,  as  they  inter- 
work  on  and  with  each  other,  need  to  be  kept  distinctly  in 
the  apprehension.  The  antagonist  agency  goes  back  in  the 
line  of  the  axis  to  the  poles,  and  holds  itself  in  static  equi 
libration  there  until  the  equatorial  ring  is  elevated  trans 
verse  to  the  axis,  and  until  the  forces  in  this  ring  have 
crowded  their  simple  activities  back  on  each  side  upon 
themselves  up  to  the  poles,  and  balanced  the  whole  move 
ment.  Another  crowding  back  of  the  polar  points  and 
lengthening  of  the  axis  then  occurs,  to  hold  itself  again  in 
static  rest  until  the  same  process  is  repeated  in  another 
equatorial  ring,  and  another  hemispherical  layer  on  each 
side  to  the  poles.  Thus  perpetually  with  the  circuit  of  the 
antagonist  force.  The  diremptive  activity,  starting  from 
the  same  limit  in  the  central  force,  takes  the  same  circuit 
by  a  directly  converse  movement.  Going  out  each  way 
from  the  central  limit,  the  diremptive  activities  encounter 
these  antagonist  agencies,  and  thus  pushing  all  back  upon 
the  polar  points  they  loosen  the  central  tension,  and  in  this 
the  occasion  is  given  for  the  diremptive  action  to  turn  its 
divellency  transverse  to  its  first  direction,  and  thereby 


THE   PEINCIPLE   OF   WORLD-FOEMATIONS.  1ST 

press  out  and  fill  in  the  interval  between  the  first  antago 
nist  spherical  layer  and  the  central  molecule.  The  diremp- 
tive  agency  thus  balanced,  must  thence  again  push  back 
upon  the  next  outer  polar  points  in  the  axis,  to  be  thence 
turned  again  transverse  to  its  former  direction,  and  loosen 
and  fill  in  between  the  first  and  second  spherical  antagonist 
layer,  and  thus  on  alternately  prolate  and  oblate  until 
every  spherical  layer  is  loosened  by  the  interposing  diremp- 
tive  force. 

This  diremptive  action  ultimately  disparts  the  layers 
and  also  the  molecules  in  the  layers,  and  dissolves  the 
whole  mass  into  a  fluid  or  molten  state.  The  two  agencies 
thus  balance  each  other,  and  the  diremption  is  held  still 
while  the  antagonism  is  just  parted,  and  the  fluid  ether 
rests  quiet. 

The  principles  of  these  working  forces  determine  clear, 
though  varied  and  extended  results.  The  polar  points 
are  perpetually  static,  and  force  the  central  movements 
through  the  equatorial  plane  and  down  on  each  side 
through  the  meridional  lines  to  meet  in  these  static  poles 
and  rest  against  them.  Each  concentric  layer  is  thus  bal 
anced  in  its  polar  point,  and  thus  each  hemisphere  through 
out  is  balanced  by  the  aggregate  polar  points  which  form 
its  axis,  and  the  two  hemispheres  stand  in  antagonism  to 
each  other  in  the  equatorial  plane,  just  as  the  simple 
activities  stand  in  antagonism  at  the  central  point.  The 
diremptive  movement,  or  permeation  of  heat,  is  thus  ever 
through  the  equatorial  plane  and  back  each  way  between 
the  concentric  layers,  and  never  through  the  polar  points 
and  out  from  thence  between  the  concentric  layers  towards 
the  equator.  When  the  heat  is  perpetually  forced  from 


188       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

the  centre,  as  there  generated,  into  the  equatorial  plane, 
the  hemispherical  antagonism  tends  to  hold  it  in  this  plane 
and  necessitates  its  accumulation  in  the  equatorial  region. 
It  presses  its  way  between  the  layers  only  by  overcoming 
this  polar  hemispherical  resistance.  The  perpetual  genera 
tion  and  effusion  must  at  length  isolate  every  antagonist 
molecule,  and  thus  truly  fuse  the  whole  sphere,  but  the 
greatest  press  of  conflicting  forces  must  be  in  and  near  to 
the  equatorial  plane. 

With  this  pressure  of  the  two  hemispheres  together  in 
the  equatorial  plane,  from  the  perpetual  working  of  the 
central  antagonism,  and  the  exact  balancing  of  the  mole 
cules  in  fluid  rest  by  the  loosening  of  the  interposed  and 
everywhere  permeating  heat-force,  we  have  a  starting- 
point  for  the  insight  to  attain  to  further  determinations. 
The  perpetual  pressure  of  new  generated  forces,  both  an 
tagonist  and  diremptive,  into  the  balanced  fluid  ether,  and 
which  from  the  loosened  and  dissolved  state  of  the  antago 
nist  forces  in  the  spherical  layers,  cannot  now  augment  the 
volume  of  the  universal  sphere,  must  gradually  condense 
and  thicken  the  homogeneous  ethereal  fluid,  and  make  it  to 
be  a  chaotic  mass  of  blended  and  confused  interworking 
forces  that,  by  occasion  given,  shall  come  together  in  chem 
ical  combination,  and  constitute  various  distinct  substances. 
The  even  working  of  the  two  central  forces,  while  thicken 
ing  the  mass  to  greater  consistency,  keeps  it  still  fluid  and 
molten,  and  ready  to  flow  on  any  excess  of  pressure. 

This  excess  must  ultimately  come,  when  the  consist 
ency  of  the  mass  is  too  dense  to  permit  the  ready  pene 
tration  of  the  central  working  forces.  A  commingled 
stream  of  such  forces,  precluded  from  free  permeation  in 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   WORLD-FORMATIONS.  189 

the  thickened  chaotic  matter,  must  drive  it  into  currents 
and  force  the  resisting  portions  before  it  into  unequal  accu 
mulations.  The  invading  currents,  meeting  with  the  re 
sistance  of  the  matter  in  advance,  must  tend  perpetually 
to  spiral  and  gyrating  movements,  turning  athwart  their 
own  courses  and  revolving  across  their  general  lines  of 
movement.  Such  whirling  movement  must  repeatedly  break 
up  the  matter  that  it  carries  into  divers  successive  separa 
tions,  and  at  intervals  make  wheeling  portions  of  matter 
that  turn  themselves  about  upon  their  own  axles,  and  work 
themselves  into  spherical  forms. 

These  will  be  of  different  volume  and  velocity  of  move 
ment,  according  to  the  forming  impulses  which  have  con 
stituted  them,  but  at  length  the  myriads  of  revolving 
spheres  will  have  worked  up  and  exhausted  the  chaotic 
material,  and  leave  the  intervening  spaces  to  be  again  filled 
by  the  purified  primitive  ether,  and  the  wheeling  bodies 
and  their  reactions  will  balance  the  central  forces,  and  re 
ciprocal  regulations  and  equilibrations  must  succeed. 

The  commingled  antagonist  and  diremptive  forces  from 
behind,  and  the  hemispherical  pressure  at  the  sides,  have 
overcome  the  forces  of  gravity  and  magnetism,  and  wrought 
the  chemical  chaos  into  these  wheeling  spheres,  but  while 
overworking  they  have  not  at  ah1  destroyed  the  forces  of 
gravity  and  magnetism.  These  forces  have  been  constant 
though  overborne,  and  have  held  the  universal  sphere  stead 
fast  in  its  own  form  and  proportions.  Each  new  spherical 
mass  has  also  taken  to  itself  a  new  centre,  and  every  mole 
cule  of  the  mass  is  pressed  out  from  the  centre  according 
to  the  principle  of  repulsion,  and  pressed  back  also  to  the 
centre  according  to  the  principle  of  attraction,  and  the  de- 


190       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

terminations  of  gravity  and  magnetism  are  in  all  these  new 
spherical  bodies  as  in  the  great  universal  sphere.  Each  has 
the  gravity  of  its  own  molecules  towards  its  own  centre, 
and  each  gravitates  towards  the  others  according  to  the  ra 
tios  of  the  quantity  of  matter  and  inversely  as  the  squares 
of  their  distances,  and  all  feel  and  obey  the  determining  prin 
ciples  of  the  great  universal  centre,  and  arrange  themselves 
in  their  respective  places  about  it  according  to  the  forces 
in  the  primitive  universal  ether  in  which  they  have  their 
position.  Each  new  spherical  body  is  also  a  magnet  with 
its  own  bi-polar  directions,  dip,  and  attraction  and  repulsion, 
and  yet  these  must  conform  to  the  magnetic  forces  of  the 
universal  sphere,  according  as  the  particular  new  spherical 
body  is  in  the  austral  or  boreal  hemisphere  of  the  universe. 
The  confused  and  chaotic  mass  of  chemically  combining 
matter  is  thus,  from  the  working  of  its  own  forces,  taking 
on  definite  forms  and  assuming  fixed  positions,  and  while 
made  to  be  individual  wholes  in  their  own  constitution, 
they  are  yet  but  the  component  portions  of  the  universal 
whole  which  is  now  coming  in  to  the  order  of  a  systematic 
arrangement.  The  original  antagonist  and  diremptive  ac 
tivities  cannot  work  on  together,  without  the  necessity  of 
inducing  such  a  chaos  of  chemical  combinations,  and  the 
necessity  also  of  there  ultimately  coming  out  from  it  this 
growing  order  of  a  systematic  whole  in  its  determined  and 
regulated  members.  All  the  spherical  masses  are  taken  up 
from  the  one  molten  universal  mass,  and  though  modified 
in  their  places  from  some  peculiarities  of  forces  and  affini 
ties,  which  may  give  some  characteristic  chemical  differ 
ences  in  the  matter  of  the  different  spheres,  yet  must  all  be 
substantially  of  the  same  material  elements  and  bodily  con- 


PEINCIPLE   OF  WOKLD-FOKMATTONS.  191 

stitution.  There  is  more  than  analogy  in  appearance  and 
origin  from  the  same  Creator,  even  an  existence  in  the 
same  primal  forces,  and  a  determined  nature  in  the  same 
eternal  principles. 

We  follow  these  determining  principles  still  onward, 
and  shall  find  yet  more  extended  results  of  cosmical  order 
and  harmony. 

Single  Worlds. — When  any  rotating  mass  shall  be  of  so 
great  consistency,  or  of  such  slow  motion,  that  the  revolving 
force  at  the  circumference  is  less  than  the  force  of  gravity, 
or  adhesion,  then  can  no  part  be  separated  from  the  mass 
in  its  revolutions,  but  the  forces  of  gravity  and  revolution 
will  work  on  together,  and  the  surrounding  fluid  matter 
will  be  taken  up  and  incorporated  into  the  body,  and  the 
wheeling  mass  must  ultimately  settle  itself  into  a  globe  of 
such  an  oblate  form  as  the  exact  compounding  of  the  gravi 
tating  and  revolving  forces  shall  determine.  It  must 
henceforth  fill  its  own  place,  and  rotate  alone  on  its  own 
axle,  and  take  that  position  in  the  great  sphere  which  is 
determined  in  its  specific  gravity.  Its  own  forces  of  mag 
netism  and  electricity  must  be  inherent,  and  it  must  attract 
and  be  attracted  according  to  the  universal  law  of  gravity. 

Double  Worlds. — Should  any  rotating  mass  break  and 
separate  into  two  portions  of  no  great  inequality,  the  small 
er  must  revolve  outside  of  and  around  the  larger,  as  having 
been  in  the  revolution  of  the  whole  thrown  off  at  parting 
beyond  the  larger,  and  while  the  larger  portion  must  per 
petually  turn  on  its  own  centre,  the  two  must  thus  be 
reciprocally  yoked  together  and  henceforth  remain  double. 
When  such  double  worlds  shall  be  viewed  from  other 
worlds  in  the  direction  of  the  plane  of  their  orbits,  they 


192       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

must  appear  to  approach  and  recede  alternately  from  each 
other ;  and  if  viewed  perpendicularly  to  their  orbital  plane, 
they  must  be  seen  to  keep  the  same  distance  from  each 
other  while  they  revolve  around  their  centre ;  and  if 
viewed  in  any  of  the  intermediate  directions,  they  must  be 
seen  to  pass  from  side  to  side  alternately,  and  always  in 
such  conjunction  as  appropriately  to  be  known  as  double 
stars.  Such  connections  in  a  common  centre  of  revolution 
must  depend  upon  conditions  that  cannot  be  anticipated  as 
of  common  occurrence,  and  yet  amid  millions  of  forming 
worlds,  the  aggregate  of  double  stars  in  their  determining 
conditions  may  well  be  very  considerable. 

These  double  worlds  must,  like  the  single  suns,  gravi 
tate  together  towards  the  great  centre,  according  to  their 
quantity  of  matter,  and  must  thus  find,  and  then  perma 
nently  keep,  their  proper  places  in  the  universal  sphere, 
and  stand  forever  balanced  in  the  position  determined  by 
the  compounding  of  the  central  and  all  outlying  attractions. 

Systems  of  Worlds. — As  these  spherical  bodies  rotate 
on  their  axes,  there  must  be  not  only  the  hemispherical 
pressure,  but  the  force  of  rotation,  perpetually  tending  to 
flatten  the  spheres  at  their  poles  and  elevate  them  at  their 
equators.  If  any  of  them  have  too  little  adhesiveness,  or 
such  an  excess  of  tangential  force  in  rapidity  of  rotation  as 
to  overmatch  the  force  of  gravity,  then  cannot  the  super 
ficial  and  equatorial  portion  maintain  its  connection  with 
the  mass,  but  must  commence  its  discession  at  the  place  of 
the  excess  of  the  tangential  force.  This  disceding  portion 
will  be  followed  by  so  much  of  the  fluid  equatorial  circum 
ference  as  shah1  at  the  time  bring  the  rotating  and  gravitat 
ing  forces  in  equilibration,  when  the  sphere  will  continue 


PRINCIPLE    OF   WOKLD-FOKMATIONS.  193 

its  rotations,  and  the  detached  portion  must  follow  out  its 
separate  determinations. 

If  the  tangential  impulse  has  added  but  little  to  the 
momentum  which  the  now  detached  portion  had  when  in 
connection  with  the  spherical  body,  then  must  the  parted 
mass  move  nearly  in  the  old  circular  track  that  it  had  when 
in  the  equatorial  surface  of  the  body  it  has  left.  But  if  it 
has  a  large  excess  of  revolving  over  the  gravitating  force, 
and  yet  not  sufficient  to  carry  it  beyond  the  attracting  force 
of  the  sphere,  the  impulse  must,  proportioned  to  this  excess, 
carry  the  detached  portion  out  beyond  its  old  track  in  the 
equatorial  circumference  it  has  left,  and  must  deviate  per 
petually  wider  and  wider  from  it,  up  to  a  certain  point. 
The  tangential  force  is  constant,  and  as  the  detached  por 
tion  moves  off,  the  gravitating  force  is  perpetually  dimin 
ishing  in  the  ratio  of  the  square  of  the  distance,  it  must 
therefore  discede  from  its  old  path,  till  it  comes  to  its  cul 
minating  point  in  the  opposite  end  of  a  line  drawn  through 
the  centre  of  the  sphere  from  the  point  where  it  disceded 
from  the  sphere.  From  this  point,  the  gravitating  force 
begins  to  augment  and  bring  the  course  gradually  nearer 
to  its  old  track,  till  in  the  point  from  whence  it  disceded 
its  orbit  will  have  been  completed,  and  it  must  henceforth 
continue  to  move  through  these  superior  and  inferior 
apsides,  in  an  elliptical  orbit  around  its  old  parent  sphere, 
and  be  known  as  a  distinct  planet. 

The  eccentricity  of  the  planet's  orbit  must  be  directly 
as  the  excess  of  the  tangential  impulse  at  the  time  of  dis- 
cession,  for  this  excess  must  equilibrate  itself  in  alternate 
departures  and  approaches  with  reference  to  its  old  path 

in  the  equatorial  surface  of  the  sphere.     Its  inclination  of 
13 


194:       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

orbit  to  the  plane  of  the  old  path  must  be  determined  by 
any  forces  drawing  it  aside,  or  changing  the  plane  of  the 
sphere's  revolution  after  the  planet's  discession. 

This  planetary  mass  thrown  from  the  wheeling  sphere, 
and  henceforth  to  revolve  in  an  elliptical  orbit  of  greater  or 
less  eccentricity  about  the  centre  of  the  old  sphere  as  one 
of  its  foci,  is  at  the  time  of  its  discession  in  an  utterly 
amorphous  condition,  both  of  outward  shape  and  inward 
constitution  and  arrangement.  It  is  only  so  much  chemi 
cally  chaotic  matter  put  in  motion  in  a  promiscuous  aggre 
gation.  But  the  principle  in  the  determining  forces  at 
work,  must  bring  order  out  of  confusion.  As  altogether 
separated  from  the  parent  sphere,  it  must  have  now  its 
own  centre  of  gravity,  and  every  molecule  of  the  fused 
matter  must  come  under  the  conditions  of  the  central 
forces,  and  tend  at  once  to  an  arrangement  equably  about 
the  centre  in  a  globular  form.  This  globular  arrangement 
from  the  inner  central  force  is  also  greatly  favored  by  a 
combination  of  outward  forces.  The  method  of  expulsion 
from  the  spherical  body,  and  its  subsequent  action  upon 
the  planetary  mass,  tends  strongly  to  its  spherical  arrange 
ment  and  rotation.  When  the  tangential  force  that  ex 
pelled  it  has  been  in  considerable  excess,  it  has  necessarily 
given  a  proportionally  strong  impulse  to  the  ejected  plane 
tary  matter,  and  this  impulse  must  be  the  most  energetic 
upon  the  superior  portion  of  this  matter,  and  tending  to 
drive  this  forward  and  over  the  inferior  portion,  at  the  same 
time  the  breaking  up  of  the  adhesion  on  leaving  the  mass, 
and  the  perpetuated  attraction  act  most  energetically  upon 
the  inferior  portion,  and  both  tend  to  restrain  and  slacken  its 
motion.  The  combination  of  these  forces  necessitates  that 


PRINCIPLE   OF   WOELD-FORMATIONS.  195 

the  upper  portion  shall  run  around  and  spirally  enwrap 
the  lower  portion.  An  axis  to  the  planet  must  thus  be 
generated  directly  after  its  separation,  and  the  planet  im 
mediately  begin  to  rotate  upon  it.  The  direction  of  its 
rotation  must  be  determined  by  these  generating  forces, 
and  which  secure  that  it  must  be  in  the  same  line  in  which 
the  body  at  the  time  is  moving  in  its  orbit.  The  superior 
portion  must  be  pushed  over,  and  the  inferior  portion  held 
back,  and  the  plane  of  rotation  must  be  determined  by  such 
combination.  All  parts  of  the  planetary  mass  being  of 
equal  consistency,  and  at  first  equally  distant  from  its  own 
centre,  would  give  conditions  determining  that  the  axis  of 
rotation  must  be  at  right  angles  to  the  orbit,  and  the 
planet's  equator  in  the  plane  of  the  orbit,  and  thus  the 
rotation  in  the  same  plane  with  the  revolution. 

But  any  modification  of  these  conditions  will  vary  the 
determined  result.  The  general  tendency  must  doubtless 
be  to  such  direction  of  rotation,  but  a  greater  density  or  a 
larger  volume  on  one  side  of  the  planetary  mass  must 
modify  its  rotation,  and  come  in  combination  with  the 
other  forces  to  determine  where  the  axis  shall  be  generat 
ed,  and  how  one  portion  shall  roll  over  another.  In  ex 
treme  cases  of  unequal  balance  in  the  planetary  matter, 
the  axis  will  necessarily  have  an  extreme  degree  of  inclina 
tion  to  the  orbit.  The  rotation  must  ever  be  conformable 
to,  and  never  retrograde  from  the  revolution,  except  from 
outward  interfering  forces,  but  the  conditions  determining 
the  rotation  may  give  very  varied  degrees  of  axial  inclina 
tion. 

The  position  of  the  axis  and  the  rate  of  rotation,  being 
determined  by  the  conditions  which  first  form  the  planet 


196        THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

to  a  globe,  they  must  henceforth  continue  the  same. 
Other  causes  may  vary  the  velocity  of  revolution  in  differ 
ent  portions  of  the  orbit,  and  other  forces  may  come  in  to 
change  the  plane  of  the  orbit  itself,  but  the  direction  and 
velocity  of  rotation  are  settled  in  the  planet's  first  forma 
tion.  The  tangential  force  and  the  power  of  attraction 
in  the  primal  sphere,  may  vary  relatively  at  different  times 
in  the  revolution,  but  the  compounded  forces  of  rotation 
did  their  work  at  once,  and  that  impulse  is  to  be  hence 
forth  constant  in  the  ejected  planet. 

When,  now,  we  take  the  planet  as  a  body  rotating  on  its 
axis,  we  can  see  that,  in  its  fluid  state,  similar  conditions  may 
give  similar  determinations  to  it,  as  were  those  in  the  case 
of  the  wheeling  sphere  from  whence  the  planet  was  sep 
arated.  This  planet  rotates  with  a  rapidity  determined  by 
the  first  compounded  impulse,  and  this  may  be  in  very 
varied  degrees  among  different  planets.  When  the  excess 
of  force  is  on  the  side  of  the  attraction,  the  tangential 
force  of  rotation  will  make  no  separations,  and  the  planet 
will  revolve  in  its  orbit  alone  without  any  attendant.  But 
when  the  excess  of  force  is  on  the  side  of  the  tangential 
impulse,  a  separation  of  a  portion  of  the  circumference  of 
the  planet  must  ensue,  and  this  portion  must  form  itself 
into  a  globe,  and  revolve  about  the  planet  as  a  satellite, 
according  to  the  determining  principles  before  given  for 
the  planet  itself. 

The  rotation  of  the  planet  on  its  axis  will  not  give  the 
amount  of  tangential  force  that  the  old  spherical  mass  did 
in  throwing  off  the  planet ;  it  is  therefore  hardly  to  be 
anticipated,  that  when  a  satellite  is  formed,  it  should  be 
made  to  rotate  about  an  axis  generated  within.  Instead 


PRINCIPLE    OF   WOELD-FOKMATIONS.  197 

of  the  tangential  force  crowding  the  superior  portion  on, 
and  the  gravitating  force  holding  the  inferior  portion 
back,  sufficiently  to  secure  a  rotation,  the  presumption 
would  be  that  when  a  satellite  is  formed,  it  will  simply  be 
separated  and  lifted  from  the  rotating  planet,  and  thus  left 
to  concentrate  in  a  globular  form,  by  the  action  of  gravity 
within  it,  and  merely  revolve  around  the  planet.  This 
must  give  a  peculiarity  of  phase  to  the  satellite  in  reference 
to  the  planet.  In  the  rotation  of  the  planet  about  its  own 
axis,  it  abolished  the  virtual  motion  that  tended  to  keep 
its  revolution  as  it  had  been  in  unbroken  connection  with 
the  radii  from  the  great  centre,  and  balanced  itself,  by  its 
rotary  motion,  in  the  plane  passing  through  its  centre  per 
pendicular  to  its  axis.  Its  axis,  in  each  part  of  its  orbit, 
thus  kept  itself  parallel  to  the  positions  it  had  occupied  in 
every  other  part,  and  every  revolution  turned  each  portion 
of  the  planet's  surface,  in  succession,  once  towards  the 
great  body  within  its  orbit.  But  the  satellite,  which  does 
not  rotate,  has  the  virtual  motion  which  the  fixed  radii 
had  communicated  from  the  centre  of  the  planet  to  the 
equatorial  circumference,  and  which  is  now  as  if  the  radii 
were  combined  in  the  one  radius  from  the  centre  of  the 
planet  through  the  centre  of  the  satellite.  The  satellite, 
thus,  cannot  hold  itself  in  any  plane  passing  through  its 
centre  perpendicular  to  some  diameter  that  might  be  made 
an  axis,  but  must  move  on  in  its  orbit,  as  its  parts  in  their 
places  in  the  equatorial  circumference  of  the  planet  had 
done  before  their  expulsion,  when  they  were  fixed  in  their 
radii  toward  the  centre.  The  satellite  now  separated  from 
it  may  revolve  faster  or  slower  than  it,  but  this  satellite 
must  keep  on  in  its  revolution  with  the  velocity  it  had 


198        THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

when  it  left  the  planet,  and  with  its  unvarying  phase 
turned  toward  the  planet  in  all  its  revolution.  If  a  sat 
ellite  rotate,  it  must  turn  each  part  of  itself  toward  the 
planet  with  every  revolution  about  it,  and  if  it  do  not 
rotate  on  its  axis,  it  cannot,  by  its  own  motion,  turn  any 
but  the  same  side  towards  every  part  of  the  planet,  as  it 
moves  above  and  around  it. 

It  may  also  be  an  occurrence  sometimes  given,  yet 
seldom  repeated,  because  its  conditions  can  very  seldom 
be  found,  that  the  circumference  shall  be  so  homogeneous 
and  equable  in  density,  and  the  tangential  force  so  evenly 
distributed  about  the  equatorial  surface  of  the  planet,  that 
it  shall  lift  a  portion  of  its  raised  equatorial  circumference 
at  once  and  together  from  itself,  and  make  a  separating 
space  in  every  part  between  its  own  body  and  a  ring  above 
it.  In  such  an  occurrence,  the  separated  ring  is  a  satellite 
which  cannot  concentrate  into  a  globe.  It  may  condense 
itself  more  and  more,  and  the  planet  also  may  condense 
beneath  it  indefinitely,  making  the  spacial  distance  between 
proportionally  large,  yet  unless  the  ring  have  force  applied 
in  some  part  to  sunder  its  adhesion,  it  must  perpetually 
encircle  the  planet  it  has  parted  from,  and  continue  to  re 
volve  above  and  about  it.  It  is  itself  its  own  orbit,  and 
each  portion  of  the  ring  follows  every  other  portion.  Its 
rate  of  revolution  is  determined  in  the  momentum  pos 
sessed  at  the  time  of  separation,  and  any  changes  of  gen 
erating  forces  above  or  beneath  must  shift  its  centre  of 
revolution  accordingly.  In  any  considerable  changes  of 
the  force  of  gravity  in  or  upon  itself  unequably,  there 
may  be  a  conformity  consistently  with  its  integrity  while 
it  is  a  fluid ;  but  as  an  unyielding  dense  body,  it  must  be 


PRINCIPLE   OF   WOELD-FOKMATIONS.  199 

ruptured  or  precipitated  upon  the  planet,  if  very  powerful 
or  violent  disturbing  forces  act  upon  it. 

Thus  may  we  very  clearly  follow  the  determining  prin 
ciples  in  the  formation  of  world-systems,  through  their  first 
stages.  The  oldest  planet  wih1  be  that  thrown  off  from 
the  outmost  periphery  of  the  wheeling  sphere,  occasioned 
by  the  compound  action  of  the  central  and  hemispherical 
forces  meeting  in  the  equatorial  region  of  the  primitive 
universal  globe  of  matter.  This  planet  must  conform,  in  its 
future  ongoing,  to  the  conditioning  principles  we  have 
been  tracing  by  the  insight  of  reason.  We  have  only  to 
follow  the  same  guide,  and  read  the  eternal  principles  in 
their  grounds,  to  the  completion  of  the  idea  in  the  per 
fected  world-system. 

When  one  planetary  portion  of  matter  has  been  thus 
thrown  off  from  the  wheeling  sphere,  that  portion  which 
remains  entire  must  now  move  on  with  accelerated  ve 
locity.  There  is  both  an  accumulating  force  at  the  centre 
from  the  continuance  of  the  perpetually  generated  pressure, 
and  the  parting  with  a  heavy  encumbrance  from  the  cir 
cumference.  Still  it  must  require  an  action  through  a  con 
siderable  period  before  the  now  diminished  equatorial  cir 
cumference,  though  revolving  on  its  centre  more  rapidly, 
shall  pass  in  any  of  its  points  through  an  equal  space  in  the 
same  time,  that  the  points  in  the  old  circumference  did. 
The  tangential  force  that  shall  throw  off  another  planet, 
must  require  some  time  in  generating.  But  the  point  must 
ultimately  be  reached,  determined  by  the  same  conditions 
as  before  in  the  consistency  of  the  matter  and  the  energy 
of  the  expulsive  power,  when  another  portion  of  planetary 
matter  must  be  expelled,  and  which  must  go  off  to  work 


200        THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE    UNIVERSE. 

its  results  under  its  conditions  as  before  considered. 
Doubtless  its  quantity  of  matter  in  volume  and  density, 
will  greatly  differ  from  the  former ;  and  also,  that  there 
will  be  a  considerable  difference  in  velocity  of  revolution, 
eccentricity  and  inclination  of  plane  in  the  orbit,  rapidity 
and  period  of  rotation  on  its  axis,  and  inclination  of  axis 
to  the  orbit,  and  also  a  difference  in  having  no  satellite  or 
a  varied  number  of  them  from  the  former  planet.  But  all 
these  will  be  determined  for  it  in  the  conditions  that  come 
with  it,  and  these  conditions  are  all  given  in  the  deter 
mining  principles  of  the  great  primal  forces  working  under 
the  control  of  the  Absolute  Reason  at  the  centre.  Thus 
on,  in  succession,  till  the  remaining  portion  of  the  sphere 
may  be  of  a  density  and  velocity  of  revolution,  in  the  ex 
hausted  and  used-up  fused  material  that  was  in  its  gather 
ing  reach,  that  shall  permit  itself  to  condense  and  concen 
trate  in  a  globe  at  the  centre,  and  revolve  in  its  own  place 
according  to  its  given  conditions,  incessantly  and  inter 
minably,  but  at  the  pleasure  of  the  Creator.  Each  planet 
and  each  satellite  has  settled  its  own  laws  of  working  in 
its  formation,  and  in  them  there  is  a  register  of  the  forces 
and  movements  of  the  whole  in  the  places  and  times  of 
their  formation,  and  the  whole  is  now  a  unit  in  its  recipro 
cal  interactions,  and  held  also  in  unity  to  the  great  primi 
tive  globe  which  fixes  its  place  for  it  within  itself! 

Thus  with  all  single  and  double  and  compound  worlds ; 
the  great  amount  of  fused  and  prepared  material,  about 
the  middle  regions  of  the  universal  globe  of  matter,  may 
be  made  to  exhaust  itself  in  any  number  and  variety  of 
world-formations,  by  a  directing  agency  at  the  centre  of 
all  operation,  and  all  these  to  take  their  respective  places, 


PRINCIPLE    OF   WOKLD-FOKMATIONS.  201 

and  revolve  therein  with  unbroken  order.  When  the 
newly  compounded  matter  shall  have  been  thus  ah1  pressed 
into  separate  worlds  and  systems,  and  the  superabundant 
heat-forces  shall  be  absorbed  in  such  creations,  the  great 
globe  of  universal  primitive  matter  will  stand  forth,  clear  in 
its  appropriate  forces  as  before,  and  the  solid  worlds  be  left 
floating  in  the  pure  ether,  which  has  a  power  of  gravity  to 
regulate,  but  not  a  consistency  and  resistance  to  hinder  or 
derange,  their  exact  revolutions  and  rotations.  The 
original  antagonism  at  the  centre  has  never  been  relaxed, 
and  now  holds  the  primal  matter,  and  all  the  chemically  com 
bined  matter  of  the  moving  worlds,  in  that  energetic  force 
and  action  which  keeps  up  for  them  perpetual  and  palpable 
existence,  shape,  and  movement.  And  the  conversely  act 
ing  diremptive-force  keeps  also  its  central  outgoings  con 
stant,  and  the  incessant  heat-generation  permeates  the 
entire  area  of  the  universal  sphere.  These  original  agen 
cies  now  perpetually  energize,  not  that  they  may  consti 
tute  new  materials,  and  augment  the  existing  creation, 
but  that  they  may  sustain,  equilibrate,  and  supply  the 
universe  in  all  its  parts  and  uses  as  already  wisely  consti 
tuted. 

The  past  history  of  world-formations  may  be  read 
exactly  in  their  present  movements  and  localities.  The 
central  sun  once  joined  in  continuous  matter  itself,  through 
all  the  intervening  worlds,  to  the  outermost  planet.  These 
worlds  now  condensed  in  solid  bodies,  were  then  fluid 
masses,  and  the  rotating  motion  of  the  whole  had  then  at 
the  equatorial  circumference,  the  velocity  of  this  furthest 
planet  in  its  orbit.  In  successive  stages  it  has  thrown  oif 
its  superficial  strata,  which  have  rolled  and  hardened  into 


202       THE    ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE    UNIVERSE. 

worlds,  now  moving  in  their  orbits  at  the  same  rates  of 
revolution  in  which  the  primal  sphere  was  then  turning  on 
its  axle.  Yea,  all  the  universe  of  suns  and  systems  were 
once  in  that  chaotic  mass  together,  which  was  by  the 
primitive  heat  dissolved,  and  mingled,  and  chemically  re 
constituted  out  of  the  modified  ethereal  matter.  They 
have  been  separately  wrought  in  their  forms,  and  pressed 
to  their  present  dimensions,  by  the  strong  impulses  of  the 
diremptive  forces,  and  the  antagonisms  which  have  come 
together  in  each  hemisphere  at  the  equator.  We  have 
only  to  follow  back  the  record  which  their  facts  will  bear 
upon  them,  and  we  may  read  their  historical  epochs  just 
in  the  same  order  of  existence,  as  the  eternal  principles  in 
the  reason  would  have  prophesied  their  development. 
The  Absolute  Creator,  with  the  archetypes  of  all  possible 
forces  in  their  unmade  principles  in  his  own  insight,  has 
seen  the  end  that  in  knowing  himself  he  has  known  was  the 
most  worthy  of  him,  and  for  his  own  excellency's  sake  he 
adopted  it,  and  for  his  glory  also  he  has  taken  that  out  of 
all  possibles  which  the  principles  demanded,  that  in  the 
highest  wisdom  he  might  consummate  it.  The  facts  have 
all  been  after  their  unchanging  principles ;  and  the  benevo 
lence  and  righteousness  of  the  end  has  not  been  by  any 
arbitrary  constituting  of  principles,  but  by  an  orderly  con 
stituting  of  facts,  and  bringing  into  existence  a  material 
creation  with  a  nature  that  unmade  and  eternal  principles 
determined  for  it.  The  glory  of  the  Maker  is,  that  the 
making  has  eternal  reasons  for  it. 

1 7.  PEINCIPLES  OF  PLANETARY  MOTION. — The  principle 
determining  the  formation  of  world-systems  includes  within 
it  that  also  for  planetary  motion,  and  we  may  here  follow 


PRINCIPLES   OF   PLANETARY   MOTION.  203 

out  such  determination,  and  attain  the  three  celebrated 
Kepler's  Laws,  not  as  mere  facts  found  and  which  have  no 
higher  explication,  but  which  must  so  be  if  the  system  it 
self  shall  be. 

(1.)  Planets  must  revolve  in  elliptical  orbits.  The  rota 
tion  of  the  primitive  spheres,  before  the  conjoint  forces 
from  the  centre  through  the  equatorial  plane  and  between 
the  two  hemispherical  pressures,  must  secure  a  translation 
of  the  superficial  portion,  more  or  less  according  to  degree 
of  adhesion  and  force  of  revolution,  from  the  polar  regions 
towards  the  equator,  and  thus  elevate  by  so  much  the 
equatorial  portion  of  the  sphere.  TVTrile  the  rate  of  revo 
lution  gives  a  tangential  force  less  than  the  gravitating  or 
adhesive  force  at  the  equatorial  surface,  the  whole  mass 
must  cohere  and  all  rotate  about  one  axis.  But  when  the 
tangential  force  at  the  equator  exceeds  the  gravitating 
force,  there  must  come  a  disruption  of  a  portion  from  the 
equatorial  surface.  This  may  include  a  thicker  or  thinner 
rim  of  the  same  consistency  of  substance,  from  the  con 
ditions  of  the  hemispherical  pressure  or  an  interference  of 
external  planetary  attraction,  but  the  force  of  revolution 
which  throws  off  the  planetary  portion  must,  to  the  extent 
of  its  excess  over  cohesion,  avail  to  project  it  beyond  the 
circular  track  it  had  been  describing  in  the  equatorial  cir 
cumference.  By  the  force  of  its  ejection  it  must  pass  out 
beyond  its  old  revolution. 

The  excess  of  projectile  above  that  of  adhesive  force 
may  be  to  any  given  amount,  but  inasmuch  as  with  the 
greatest  degree  of  projectile  impulse,  the  gravitating  force 
toward  the  centre  of  the  sphere  must  still  act,  so  the  eject 
ed  mass  must  be  affected  by  it,  and  cannot  pass  off  in  a 


204:        THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

completely  tangential  straight  line,  and  must  take  the 
course  of  a  curve  somewhere  within  the  tangent.  If  the 
excess  of  projectile  force  be  to  so  great  a  degree,  that 
when  a  point  taken  as  a  centre  within  the  induced  curve 
shall  have  lines  drawn  from  this  centre  to  the  curve,  and 
then  reflected  from  the  curve  at  the  same  angle  to  a  tan 
gent  at  that  point,  on  the  other  side,  which  the  incident 
line  had  with  the  tangent  on  this  side,  and  these  reflected 
lines  shall  also  meet  a  line  drawn  perpendicularly  to  the 
axis  of  the  curve  at  an  angle  greater  than  a  right  angle, 
then  will  that  curve  be  thereby  evinced  to  be  a  hyperbola, 
and  the  planetary  portion  cannot  revolve  in  a  complete 
orbit  about  the  centre.  If  these  reflected  lines  meet  the 
perpendicular  to  the  axis  at  an  angle  equal  to  a  right  angle, 
then  will  that  curve  be  thereby  evinced  to  be  a  parabola, 
and  the  planetary  mass  still  cannot  make  a  complete  revo 
lution.  But  if  these  reflected  lines  meet  the  perpendicular 
to  the  axis  at  an  angle  less  than  a  right  angle,  then  must 
they  converge  and  meet  somewhere  in  another  point  that 
shall  be  another  focus  to  the  curve,  and  thus  make  the 
curve  to  have  as  it  were  two  centres,  which  will  thereby 
evince  that  the  curve  is  an  ellipse,  and  thus,  as  returning 
again  into  itself,  the  path  will  be  a  complete  orbit,  and  the 
planet  will  perpetually  revolve  in  it.  Should  the  reflected 
lines  come  back  in  the  incident  lines  to  the  same  centre, 
this  would  thereby  evince  the  curve  to  be  an  arc  of  a  circle, 
and  such  must  of  course  be  the  orbit  of  the  moving  body 
in  it. 

But  the  impossibility  that  the  projected  mass  should 
take  the  curve  that  is  the  arc  of  a  circle  is  manifest  in  what 
has  already  been  seen,  viz.,  that  when  the  projectile  force 


PRINCIPLES   OF   PLANETARY   MOTION.  205 

was  less  than,  or  only  equal  to,  the  attractive  force,  it  could 
not  be  ejected  from  the  main  sphere,  and  would  in  the 
equatorial  surface  of  that  sphere  describe  an  exact  circle  ; 
and  that  the  excess  of  projectile  force,  which  must  eject  it, 
must  also  to  the  same  degree  send  it  out  of  and  beyond 
the  circle  it  had  been  hitherto  describing.  It  must  there 
fore  extend  its  curve  beyond  a  circle  if  it  become  a  separate 
planetary  body,  and  it  must  not  extend  the  curve  to  the 
hyperbola  or  parabola  if  it  revolve  at  all  in  a  complete 
orbit.  It  must  therefore  take  on  an  elliptical  orbit  of  great 
er  or  less  eccentricity. 

This  determined  elliptical  orbit,  and  the  principle  which 
must  determine  also  the  given  eccentricity,  may  be  followed 
in  the  order  of  its  process.  At  the  point  of  discession 
the  planet  must  possess  and  retain  with  it  a  given  constant 
measure  of  centrifugal  force,  which,  as  an  excess  above  the 
gravitating  or  centripetal  force,  has  detached  it  from  the 
primal  sphere  and  sent  it  beyond  the  circle  in  the  equato 
rial  circumference.  The  centripetal  force  gradually  dimin 
ishes  as  this  constant  centrifugal  force  carries  the  planet 
outwards  from  the  circle  it  had  in  the  old  circumference, 
and  the  planet  must  thus  discede  continually  from  the  old 
centre  until  it  has  completed  one-half  of  its  revolution. 
But  the  centrifugal  force  is  not  sufficient  to  carry  it  by  and 
beyond  this  culminating  point,  which  would  demand  that 
it  become  a  parabola  or  an  hyperbola,  and  thus  the  centri 
petal  force  avails  to  bring  it  down  from  this  point  in  the 
semi-revolution,  and  thence  this  centripetal  force  gradually 
augments  through  the  other  half  of  the  revolution  to  the 
return  in  the  old  point  of  discession.  The  inferior  apsis 
must  be  at  the  point  of  discession,  and  the  superior  apsis  at 


206       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

the  opposite  point  of  half  a  revolution,  and  the  excess  of 
the  mnjor  over  the  minor  axis  must  be  proportional  to  the 
excess  of  the  tangential  or  projectile  impulse.  It  must  be 
some  form  of  the  ellipse,  for  it  must  be  outside  of  the  old 
equatorial  circle,  and  it  must  be  inside  of  either  a  hyper 
bolic  or  parabolic  curve  which  could  not  return  into  itself. 

(2.)  Each  planet  must  describe  equal  sectors  in  equal 
times  in  its  own  orbit.  When  the  primal  sphere  from 
whence  the  planet  was  separated  rotated  with  the  matter 
of  the  planet  still  adhering  to  the  equatorial  surface,  each 
point  in  every  radius  in  the  equatorial  plane  out  of  the 
centre  moved  in  a  perfect  circle,  and  each  radius  from  the 
centre  to  any  point  within  it,  equally  distant  in  all,  de 
scribed  equal  areas  in  equal  times  in  the  equal  velocity  of 
rotation.  Since  the  planet  has  been  thrown  off,  the  pro 
jectile  force  that  expelled  it  has  gone  with  it  and  remained 
constant  in  it,  and  if  the  planet  had  continued  to  move  in 
its  old  circular  track,  the  velocity  would  still  have  been 
uniform,  and  thus  its  radius  or  line  drawn  from  its  own 
centre  to  the  centre  of  revolution  would  still  have  described 
equal  sectors  in  equal  times. 

But  according  to  the  first  principle  of  planetary  motion, 
the  excess  of  tangential  over  the  gravitating  force  has 
necessarily  given  to  its  course  an  elliptical  orbit  of  more  or 
less  eccentricity,  and  thus  its  rate  of  movement  must  be 
variable  through  all  portions  of  its  revolution.  This  excess 
of  tangential  force  must,  however,  exactly  balance  itself 
against  the  gravitating  force  in  the  resulting  eccentricity 
of  the  orbit,  and  the  whole  periodic  time  of  revolution  must 
be  the  same  as  that  of  its  last  rotation  in  the  circumference 
of  the  sphere  before  its  ejection.  That  rotation  was  in  a 


PRINCIPLES    OF   PLANETARY   MOTION.  207 

complete  circle,  and  the  radii  all  described  equal  sectors  in 
equal  times.  The  radius  which  the  planet  now  carries  with 
it,  or  the  line  from  its  occupied  focus  to  its  own  centre, 
called  the  radius  vector,  continually  lengthens  itself  in  the 
passage  from  the  inferior  to  the  superior  apsis,  in  the  exact 
proportion  inversely  as  the  velocity  diminishes ;  and  then 
again  contracts  itself  in  the  passage  from  the  superior  to 
the  inferior  apsis,  in  its  opposite  semi-revolution,  in  the 
exact  proportion  inversely  as  the  velocity  increases.  What 
is  gained  in  the  extent  of  the  radius  vector  is  exactly  com 
pensated  in  the  retardation  of  the  movement,  and  what  on 
the  other  side  of  the  orbit  is  lost  in  the  contraction  of  the 
radius  vector  is  also  exactly  compensated  in  the  accelera 
tion  of  the  movement,  and  the  whole  periodic  time  of  revo 
lution  is  the  same  in  the  planetary  ellipse  as  it  was  in  the 
equatorial  circle,  and  thus  the  circumference  of  the  elliptical 
orbit  is  of  the  same  extent  as  was  that  of  the  rotating  equa 
torial  circle.  But  the  same  extent  of  radius  and  arc  of  the 
circle  have  the  same  proportion  to  the  whole  area  of  the 
circle,  that  the  like  extent  of  radius  vector  and  arc  of  the 
ellipse  have  to  the  whole  area  of  the  ellipse,  and  as  these  are 
described  in  equal  times  in  both,  and  that  of  the  circle  is 
equal  sectors  in  equal  times,  so  that  also  of  the  ellipse  must 
be  equal  sectors  in  equal  times. 

(3.)  The  squares  of  the  times  of  revolution  must  be  as 
the  cubes  of  the  mean  distances.  If  we  take  a  perfectly 
circular  orbit,  we  may  say  that  a  given  amount  of  force 
will  secure  that  the  planet  shall  have  one  minim  of  motion 
in  one  moment  of  time ;  and  therefore  in  one  minim  of  mo 
tion  and  one  moment  of  time,  one  radius  will  have  changed 
its  place,  by  the  revolution,  for  the  place  which  its  next 


208        THE    ETERNAL    PRINCIPLES    OF    THE    UNIVERSE. 

contiguous  radius  had  occupied  in  the  plane  of  the  orbit. 
But  that  the  same  force  should  carry  the  planet  through  its 
entire  orbit,  must  demand  that  the  same  radius  take  the 
place  successively  of  all  the  radii  in  so  many  minims  of  mo 
tion  and  moments  of  time.  And  now,  as  the  whole  area  of 
the  orbital  plane  is  as  the  square  of  the  radius,  so  the  force 
is  as  the  square  of  the  minims  of  motion,  and  also  as  the 
square  of  the  moments  of  time.  A  less  or  greater  force,  in 
carrying  the  planet  through  the  same  orbit,  must  have  its 
proportionally  less  or  greater  moments  of  time,  and  a  less 
or  greater  orbit  with  the  same  force  must  have  its  propor 
tionally  less  or  greater  moments  of  time,  and  all  differences 
of  orbit  with  differences  of  force  must  have  their  propor 
tional  differences  of  moments  of  time,  and  therefore,  in  all 
cases,  the  force  and  the  orbit  being  given  must  determine 
the  square  of  the  time  of  revolution. 

ISTow  the  orbit  may  be  constituted  the  same  on  three 
different  conditions,  viz.,  as  the  revolution  of  a  line  about 
one  of  its  ends,  or  the  revolution  of  a  circular  plane  of  the 
same  semi-diameter  as  the  length  of  the  line,  or  the  revolu 
tion  of  a  solid  globe  of  the  same  diameter  as  the  circular 
plane.  But  while  in  all  these  cases  the  orbits  would  be  the 
same,  in  each  case  the  forces  must  greatly  differ  one  from 
another.  When  the  planet  is  thrown  from  the  end  of  the 
revolving  line,  it  will  move  in  the  same  orbit  in  the  same 
time  if  the  force  is  as  the  sum  of  all  the  points  in  the  line, 
or,  which  is  the  same  thing,  as  the  length  of  the  line.  In 
this  case  the  principle  must  be,  that  the  squares  of  the 
times  of  revolution  must  be  as  the  distances. 

If  the  planet  be  thrown  off  from  the  circumference  of  a 
rotating  circular  plane,  then  also  will  it  move  in  the  same 


PKINCIPLES   OF   PLANETARY   MOTION.  209 

orbit  in  the  same  time  when  the  force  is  as  the  length  of 
every  line  from  the  centre  to  the  circumference,  or,  as  the 
same  thing,  the  square  of  the  distance.  The  principle  in 
this  case  must  therefore  be,  that  the  squares  of  the  times  of 
revolution  must  be  as  the  squares  of  the  distances. 

But  when  a  planet  has  been  expelled  from  the  equato 
rial  surface  of  a  sphere,  although  revolving  in  the  same 
time  within  the  same  orbit,  yet  must  its  force  have  been 
far  greater.  Every  radius  of  the  sphere  has  thrown  off  its 
own  portion,  and  here  the  principle  must  be  as  the  cube  of 
the  distance,  and  we  shall  have  the  determined  formula 
that  the  squares  of  the  periodic  times  will  be  as  the  cubes 
of  the  distance.  The  determining  forces  of  the  universe  in 
the  central  antagonist  and  diremptive  working,  exclude 
both  the  former  principles,  and  give  the  latter  as  the  third 
principle  of  planetary  motion. 

Thus  would  it  be  in  all  cases  of  circular  orbits,  but  the 
principle  also  equally  prevails  when  the  planet  has  disceded 
from  the  primal  sphere,  and  taken  on  its  orbit  of  a  more  or 
less  eccentric  ellipse.  In  all  cases,  the  corresponding  of 
centrifugal  and  centripetal  forces  must  balance  the  distance 
from  the  centre  with  the  rate  of  motion,  and  thus  always 
for  the  entire  revolution  we  must  say  of  the  mean  distance 
in  the  ellipse  what  is  true  of  the  equal  radii  of  the  circle, 
that  the  squares  of  the  times  of  revolution  are  as  the  cubes 
of  the  mean  distances. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  planetary  formations  on 
either  of  the  three  conditions  of  an  expulsion  from  a  line, 
a  circular  plane,  or  a  solid  sphere,  would  each  determine 
the  same  results  in  the  first  two  principles  of  planetary 

motion,  and   give  necessarily  elliptical  orbits,  and  equal 
14 


210       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

sectors  in  equal  times,  but  only  planets  thrown  from  the 
equatorial  surface  of  a  globe  can  make  the  squares  of  the 
periodic  times  as  the  cubes  of  the  mean  distances. 

18.  PRINCIPLE  OF  LIGHT  AND  OF  LUMENIFEROUS  BOD 
IES. — Should  we  conceive  that  light  is  some  subtle  mate 
rial  substance  transmitted  by  radiation  from  a  luminous 
source,  we  might  have  in  this  that  which  should  impress 
the  organ  of  vision,  but  we  should  have  only  the  substance 
moved  in  radiation,  and  know  nothing  of  the  radiating 
force.  Or,  should  we  conceive  that  this  subtle  substance 
was  put  in  rapid  and  progressive  vibration,  we  should  again 
have  that  which  might  make  an  impression  upon  the  organ, 
but  we  should  have  only  the  matter  vibrating,  but  not  the 
force  which  put  and  keeps  it  in  motion.  We  need  to  at 
tain  the  insight  of  some  force  that  goes  through  the  midst 
of  the  molecules  in  the  primitive  ether,  and  sets  them  in 
vibration  and  registers  itself  in  their  movement,  before  we 
can  know  what  light  is  in  its  essential  principle,  or  deter 
mine  any  of  the  necessary  laws  of  its  phenomena.  The 
diremptive  force  is  the  essential  principle  of  light  as  well  as 
heat.  This  diremptive  activity  going  out  each  way  in  the 
midst  of  antagonist  forces,  necessarily  separates  and  isolates 
these  molecular  forces,  and  in  permeating  the  ensphered 
mass,  it  must  make  its  way  by  giving  alternately  a  prolate 
and  an  oblate  form  to  every  successive  spherical  layer,  and 
thereby  make  every  molecule  in  the  layers  successively  to 
vibrate  as  they  stand  out  in  their  direction  and  distance 
from  the  centre,  and  thus  the  vibrations  must  be,  a  radia 
tion  from  the  centre. 

Such  diremptive  vibrations  we  have  already  considered 
as  the  principle  of  heat,  and  when  the  vibrations  are  of  a 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   LIGHT.  211 

given  degree  of  intensity,  breadth,  and  frequency,  they  will 
be  essentially  mere  heat ;  but  this  heat  intensified  to  a  cer 
tain  higher  degree  of  sharp  and  rapid  vibration,  becomes 
light.  Heat  and  light  are  from  the  one  diremptive  activity, 
and  are  thus  one  in  their  essence  and  general  principle,  but 
they  differ  in  tension,  breadth,  and  velocity,  and  in  this 
difference  of  degree,  will  be  found  all  differences  of  deter 
mined  phenomenal  laws. 

We  have  now  the  conception  of  the  multiplied  worlds 
and  systems,  and  these  as  floating,  under  the  control  of 
gravity,  in  the  great  ocean  of  the  primitive  ether  which 
forms  the  grand  universal  sphere.  This  primitive  ether  is 
constituted  of  the  ensphered  antagonist  molecules,  all  sep 
arated  and  rendered  fluid  by  the  interfusion  of  the  diremp 
tive  force  between  them.  The  formation  of  the  worlds 
and  systems  has  collected  and  conglomerated  the  chemical 
elements,  and  the  whole  chaotic  matter  has  been  thus  used 
up  and  condensed  in  separate  masses,  and  the  purified 
ether  stands  in  its  own  ensphered  relation  to  its  one  grand 
centre,  and  fills  up  all  the  interplanetary  and  interstel- 
lary  spaces,  and  stretches  itself  out  to  the  limits  of  the 
universe.  The  great  central  antagonist  and  diremptive 
activities  hold  on  their  steady  and  equal  converse  pres 
sures,  and  thus  this  sea  of  the  ethereal  universe  is  perpet 
ually  tranquil  and  still.  All  the  diremptive  force  in  it  is 
heat,  held  in  static  equilibration  by  its  even  surroundings 
of  the  antagonist  molecular  forces,  and  is  thus  wholly 
latent  heat.  There  is  much  heat  in  chemical  combination 
in  the  simple  and  compound  substances  of  matter,  and  this 
heat  is  also  fixed  in  the  matter  of  the  worlds  which  it  helps 
to  constitute,  and  thus  the  great  amount  of  diremptive 


212       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

energy  is  held  at  rest  in  its  reaction,  or  rather  direct  con 
verse  action,  with  other  forces.  Only  the  heat,  which  is 
free  and  uncombined  in  the  molten  masses  of  the  material 
worlds,  is  in  a  condition  to  radiate,  and  so  far  to  make  the 
primitive  ether  to  vibrate. 

But  in  the  midst  of  this  general  calm  of  the  universe 
since  the  progressive  settling  of  the  worlds  into  their 
forms  and  places,  we  now  turn  the  rational  insight  specially 
to  the  new  modifications  of  the  antagonist  forces  in  these 
separate  worlds  and  systems,  and  we  shall  attain  to  some 
further  immutable  and  eternal  principles  most  interesting, 
and  determining  to  very  broad  phenomenal  results.  So 
soon  as  the  great  chaotic  mass  of  fused  chemical  materials 
for  world-formations  in  the  universal  equatorial  region, 
had  been  first  thickened  and  then  broken  up  by  the  crowd 
ing  in  of  the  augmenting  central  forces,  and  the  various 
streams  had  been  rounded  into  spiral  circuits  by  the 
advance  resistances,  and  these  divided  and  condensed  into 
separate  wheeling  spheres,  then  these  separate  spheres  all 
had  each  its  own  centre,  and  every  molecule  in  them  at 
once  had  a  polarity  that  was  determined  from  the  particu 
lar  centre,  while  only  the  general  polarity  of  the  particular 
sphere  was  determined  by  the  centre  of  the  great  universal 
sphere.  This  particular  polarity  and  gravity  for  each 
molecule  to  its  new  centre,  has  been  again  modified  by  the 
expulsion  of  each  new  planet  and  satellite,  and  which  have 
each  had  all  their  molecules  turned  in  polarity  and  grav 
ity  to  conform  to  their  own  new  centres ;  and  yet  all  the 
particular  globes  of  the  same  system  have  kept  the  one 
and  same  common  centre  for  their  general  polarity  and 
gravity.  And  especially,  while  the  worlds  of  the  system 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   LIGHT.  11 U  3       213 

^\      ^  ^  ^v  ,    > 

have  had  their  one  common  centre,  the  ethereal  nk^nles 
through  all  the  spaces  of  that  system  have  been  turnecT 
and  kept  in  their  determined  polarity  and  gravity  by  that 
centre.  The  primitive  ether  within  the  system  has  been 
ensphered  about  the  centre  of  the  system,  and  we  may  re 
gard  it  as  a  particular  ethereal  sphere  separate  altogether 
from  the  globes  of  chemically  combined  matter  that  float 
within  it. 

Take,  then,  the  ethereal  sphere  of  any  particular  sys 
tem,  and  which  extends  out  from  the  centre,  beyond  its 
farthest  planet,  to  the  extent  to  which  its  power  of  attrac 
tion  reaches,  and  every  molecular  force  of  the  antagonist 
activities  is  pressed  out  and  presses  back,  just  in  proportion 
to  its  quantity  of  force  or  matter,  and  inversely  to  the 
square  of  its  distance  from  the  centre.  Now  when  the 
central  sun  shall  have  thrown  off  all  its  planets,  and 
settled  itself  in  a  sphere  at  the  centre,  its  surface  must 
take  and  sustain  all  this  ethereal  gravitation.  The  diremp- 
tive  force,  which  mingles  in  it  and  so  permeates  it  as  to 
surround  and  isolate  every  antagonist  molecular  force,  is 
wholly  imponderable ;  its  action  is  away  from  the  centre, 
and  is  held  from  expansion  to  infinity  only  by  the  antag 
onist  activities  which  meet  and  retain  it ;  the  antagonisms 
only  press  back  upon  the  centre,  and  thus  the  antagonist 
molecules  only  are  ponderable,  and  all  these  through  the 
sphere  do  press  upon  the  sun's  surface. 

In  this  sphere  of  the  ethereal  fluid  surrounding  the 
central  sun,  we  must  regard  only  the  antagonist  forces  as 
pressing  back  upon  the  body  of  the  sun  in  their  gravity, 
and  while  the  permeating  heat-force  would  just  dissolve 
and  make  the  whole  to  be  fluid  ether,  if  only  the  general 


214:       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

pressure  to  the  universal  centre  were  regarded,  yet  now 
with  this  new  centre  of  the  world-system  and  the  pressure 
of  the  antagonist  forces  back  upon  it,  the  ether  cannot 
remain  a  wholly  dissolved  and  every  way  movable  fluid. 
The  polar  points,  and  equatorial  rings,  and  spherical  layers 
of  the  antagonist  forces,  all  again  stiffen  into  consistency 
and  rigidity,  by  the  gravity  pressing  back  upon  the  central 
sun,  and  the  heat-force  through  all  the  ethereal  sphere  of 
the  system  is  confined  between  the  spherical  layers,  and 
thus  an  action  must  at  once  commence  at  the  centre,  or  on 
the  sun's  surface,  that  will  send  the  diremptive  forces  in 
their  alternate  processes  of  prolate  and  dilate  movement 
through  the  sphere,  and  on  beyond  till  equalized  by  the 
outer  resistance,  and  then  the  radiations  can  propagate 
themselves  no  further.  The  new  direction  of  gravity  to 
the  centre  of  the  system  must  at  once  make  a  new  radiat 
ing  movement  from  that  centre,  and  the  pressure  of  the 
ether  upon  the  sun's  surface,  and  the  friction  of  the  sun's 
rotation  in  collision  with  it,  must  accumulate  a  large 
amount  of  the  diremptive  force  about  it,  and  which  will  at 
once  be  a  perpetual  source  for  outgoing  streams  of  vibrat 
ing  energy.  Such  diremptive  generation  and  accumulation 
must  be  constant,  and  as  the  pressure  is  greatly  intensified, 
so  the  vibrations  are  proportionally  quickened  and  sharp 
ened,  and  the  heat  becomes  light,  and  the  sun  has  its 
luminous  atmosphere,  and  is  the  great  centre  of  heat  and 
light,  as  well  as  of  gravity  to  its  system.  Its  light  and 
heat  are  as  determinate  principles  as  its  gravity,  yea,  they 
are  eternally  determined  in  its  gravity.  Such  a  centre  to 
a  system  cannot  be  in  the  universal  ether,  but  it  will  kindle 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   LIGHT.  215 

its  heat  and  light  about  it,  and  diffuse  it  abroad  in  per 
petual  vibrating  radiations. 

This  gravitating  pressure  at  the  centre  is  constant ; 
and  the  supply  from  the  great  ethereal  universal  sphere  is 
exhaustless;  as  the  radiations  go  off  to  mingle  in  and 
be  absorbed  by  the  great  ethereal  ocean,  so  the  great  cen 
tral  pressure  that  makes  and  keeps  that  ocean  full  must 
work  the  diremptive  forces  back  to  the  solar  centre, 
through  all  the  layers  of  the  sphere  that  its  gravity  has 
formed  about  it,  as  the  radiations  go  out  and  exhaust  that 
which  is  in  this  centre ;  and  thus  the  solar  light  is  perpet 
ually  replenished,  and  its  radiations  in  successive  vibratory 
movements  continual,  and  the  circuit  of  heat  and  light 
unbroken. 

The  forces  of  gravity  and  the  tangential  repulsions  must 
determine  the  rate  of  revolution,  and  thus  the  point  at 
which  the  central  body  shall  cease  to  throw  off  new  plan 
ets,  and  must  thus  also  determine  the  volume  of  the  central 
sun,  and  this  will  regulate  its  amount  of  light.  Before  the 
last  planets  shall  have  been  separated,  and  while  the  sys 
tem-making  sphere  is  yet  of  very  considerable  size,  the 
forces  of  gravity  in  the  ethereal  fluid  will  begin  to  press 
upon  its  surface  in  sufficient  intensity  to  wake  and  actuate 
the  latent  heat,  and  commence  the  faint  accumulations  of  a 
luminous  atmosphere,  and  which  must  grow  on  as  the 
volume  of  the  central  body  diminishes  and  the  forces  of 
gravity  upon  its  surface  augment,  and  thus  light  will  have 
been  generated,  and  day  and  night  have  been  given  to  the 
planets  already  thrown  off,  before  the  sun  as  the  permanent 
centre  shall  have  been  constituted.  The  morning  twilight 
of  creation  must  begin  in  the  first  kindling  of  light  upon 


216       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF  THE   UNIVERSE. 

the  surface  of  the  diminishing  system-sphere,  and  become 
the  perfect  day  when  this  system-sphere  has  become  the 
central  sun,  and  its  full  light  reflected  upon  the  planetary 
bodies  shall  make  it  and  them  to  be  "  lights  in  the  firma 
ment  of  heaven,  to  divide  the  day  from  the  night,  and  to 
be  for  signs  and  for  seasons  and  for  days  and  years." 
Were  the  central  sun  to  diminish  less  than  this  due  pro 
portion  determined  by  gravity  and  heat-force,  both  light 
and  heat  would  become  deficient.  Every  central  sun  must 
be  such  a  luminiferous  body,  and  while  a  sun  to  its  own 
system,  it  must  also  be  a  star  shining  in  its  own  light  to 
all  the  other  suns  and  worlds,  within  the  scope  of  its  radia 
ting  vibrations.  The  planets  will  not  be  centres  of  gravity, 
giving  intensity  to  the  antagonist  forces  in  awakening  the 
latent  heat  sufficiently  to  make  them  self-luminous,  though 
it  may  so  be  that  some  of  the  larger  shall  have  their  light 
increased  by  this  self  production  beyond  the  amount  of 
reflection. 

The  whole  sphere  of  the  system,  and  indeed  the  uni 
versal  sphere  of  the  primitive  ether,  is  filled  with  static  or 
latent  heat,  and  thus  the  central  radiation  has  not  to  pass 
in  locomotion  all  through  the  interior  and  out  to  the  cir 
cumference  in  its  vibrations  to  propagate  light ;  the  pulsa 
tion  at  the  centre  finds  a  plenum  before  it,  and  thus  each 
throb  moves  the  whole,  and  only  the  compressibility  and 
elastic  spring  is  to  be  estimated  in  the  transmission  of  mo 
tion.  The  rapidity  of  light  will  be  uniform  and  in  almost 
inconceivable  degrees. 

As  radiating  from  a  centre  and  thus  diminishing  its 
tension  in  the  ratio  of  gravity,  it  must  give  its  degree  of 
intensity  inversely  to  the  extent  of  the  subtending  angular 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   LIGHT.  217 

line,  or  apparent  size  of  the  body,  and  thus  degree  of  light 
and  size  will  diminish  alike  by  distance,  each  being  in 
versely  to  the  square  of  the  distance.  A  small  body  of 
proportionally  intense  light  may  appear  equal  in  bright 
ness,  at  the  same  distance,  with  a  large  body  and  less  light. 
The  principle  of  radiation  in  the  vibrating  movement 
from  a  centre  being  attained,  it  will  at  once  determine 
what  must  be  the  phenomena.  If  the  transmitted  vibra 
tions  meet  a  substance  that  stops  and  absorbs  them,  such 
interposing  substance  must  be  opaque.  If  they  readily 
pass  through  the  substance,  it  must  be  transparent;  and 
if  passing  scantily  and  with  difficulty,  it  must  be  merely 
translucent.  If  they  strike  some  substance  and  are  de 
flected  in  their  course,  they  must  thereby  determine  all  the 
phenomena  in  reflection  /  and  in  passing  from  a  rarer  into 
a  denser  medium,  there  must  be  refraction  ;  and  if  passing 
by  the  opaque  edge  of  an  interposing  body,  there  must  be 
diffraction.  If  the  substance  transmit  the  opposite  vibra 
tions  unequally,  there  must  be  double  refraction  /  and  if  a 
direct  ray  be  refracted  unequally,  it  must  in  that  process 
be  analyzed  and  spread  its  unequal  vibrations  through  an 
elongated  spectrum.  Also,  if  a  direct  ray  be  reflected  or 
refracted  at  a  particular  angle,  and  then  be  turned  on  its 
axis,  it  will  have  made  one  side  of  the  vibrations  to  disap 
pear,  in  turning  the  edges  of  their  plane  within  the  line  of 
vision,  and  only  the  vibrations  in  the  transverse  plane  can 
be  apparent,  and  thus  the  radiation  must  be  polarized  / 
and  if  one  line  of  vibrations  cross  another,  there  must  be 
alternate  combination  and  neutralization,  and  thus  the 
phenomena  of  interference.  The  principle  being  attained, 
the  laws  in  the  facts  are  a  necessity. 


218       THE   ETEENAL   PEINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVEESE. 

19.  THE  PEINCIPLES  or  GEOLOGICAL  FOEMATIONS. — All 
worlds  are  constituted  from  some  combinations  of  the  t\vo 
elemental  forces,  and  while  the  circumstances  may  some 
what  modify  the  chemical  compounding,  and  vary  in  differ 
ent  worlds  their  material  substances  to  a  certain  extent, 
yet  must  each  world  be  essentially  like  the  others,  and  the 
combination  and  collocation  of  its  substances  be  peculiar 
only  in  the  peculiar  conditions  to  which  it  has  been  sub 
jected.  We  may  thus  apprehend  the  general  principles 
of  this  world-formation,  and  some  of  the  peculiarities 
which  certain  of  the  worlds  from  their  circumstances  must 
possess,  and  we  can  in  this  have  the  principles  of  what 
may  be  termed  a  universal  geology. 

The  universe  must  have  its  particular  systems,  and  the 
system  must  have  its  particular  sun,  planets,  and  satellites. 
All  must  have  the  same  determinate  principles  of  planetary 
revolution.  The  planets  may  condense  in  the  cooling  and 
conglomerating  process  unequally,  but  in  the  original 
throwing  off,  the  outer  planets  must  have  been  the  rarer 
and  the  inner  planets  the  denser,  and  such  must  continue 
to  be  their  general  state  in  their  perpetual  orbital  posi 
tions.  The  central  suns,  from  their  perpetual  atmosphere 
of  heat  and  light,  must  condense  the  least  from  cooling. 
The  particular  world  as  a  planet,  will  have  the  action  of 
gravity  concentrating  all  its  matter  by  direct  radial  lines 
to  the  centre,  and  added  thereto  a  tangential  force  in  its 
rotation  about  its  axis.  This  general  action  of  gravity 
will  bring  the  denser  matter  to  the  centre,  and  the  whole 
outlying  matter  will  press  in  upon  it,  and  thus  secure  that 
the  matter  in  the  first  fluid  formation  will  be  ranged  ac 
cording  to  the  universal  law  of  a  density  in  the  inverse 


THE   PRINCIPLES   OF   GEOLOGICAL   FORMATIONS.       219 

ratio  to  the  square  of  the  distance  from  the  centre.  But 
a  rotary  force  will  so  modify  this,  that  in  addition  to  the 
direct  concentration  of  gravity  there  will  be  the  whirling 
movement,  wrapping  layer  over  layer  in  concentric  folds. 
The  globe  will  thus  form  in  concentric  strata  of  perpet 
ually  increasing  density  to  the  centre,  and  with  a  tendency, 
when  the  mass  may  harden,  to  a  cleavage  in  the  direction 
between  the  strata,  and  to  lines  and  fractures  in  the  direc 
tion  of  gravity  across  the  strata. 

The  cooling  process  is  the  escaping  of  the  superabun 
dant  and  uncombined  diremptive  forces,  which  go  off  from 
the  very  nature  and  constitution  of  their  existence,  leaving 
the  chemical  combinations  in  the  body  to  their  unhindered 
strength  of  affinities,  and  thus  the  substance  of  the  plane 
tary  world  must  become  at  length  a  solid  globe  of  less  or 
greater  volume  and  density.  As  the  cooling  and  con 
densing  process  goes  on,  the  crust  above  the  fused  matter 
becomes  thicker,  the  outer  strata  press  their  weight  upon 
the  lower,  and  therefore  from  both  the  necessity  of  the 
heaviest  being  the  lowest  in  a  fluid  state,  and  the  outer 
pressing  the  inner  in  a  solid  state,  the  lower  strata  in  posi 
tion  must  be  the  densest  and  hardest,  and  the  most  com 
pact  crystals  and  sub-crystalline  rocks  will  have  their 
places  nearest  to  the  internal  fire.  The  first  geological 
formations  must  be  plutonic,  the  crystallized  and  partially 
crystallized  will  underlie  the  composite,  and  the  inner 
heat  will  at  length  be  so  confined  and  softened,  that  an 
atmosphere  shall  form,  and  the  combination  of  water  com 
mence,  and  ultimately  the  wernerian  geological  process 
must  begin.  Disintegration  and  abrasion,  and  diluvial 
currents,  will  make  their  transpositions  of  substance,  and 


220       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

sedimentary  deposits  will  make  their  various  strata,  and 
vegetable  and  animal  life  begin,  and  their  fossil  remains 
become  imbedded  in  the  forming  and  successively  overly 
ing  portions.  The  sea  and  air  will  alternate  over  the  same 
places,  and  each  make  their  distinct  record  upon  the  same 
portions  of  the  planet's  surface,  and  leave  it  to  be  read  by 
future  philosophical  observers.  The  force  of  the  inner 
fires,  especially  in  any  commingling  with  the  expansible 
fluids  and  gases,  must  induce  wide  disruptions  and  up 
heavals,  and  the  tilting  and  twisting  of  the  superincumbent 
strata,  and  thus  the  surface  of  the  planet  must  become 
broken  into  ridges  and  fissures,  chasms  and  opening  caves 
beneath  the  solid  overlying  portions ;  and  in  the  greater 
labors  of  the  subterranean  forces,  mountains  and  valleys 
must  be  formed,  and  broad  fields  of  the  horizontal  strata 
will  be  upturned,  and  give  their  outcropping  edges  to  re 
veal  the  orders  of  nature's  ongoings  for  long  geological 
cycles. 

These  inner  fires  must  often  have  their  orifices  opening 
upwards  to  the  surface,  and  the  volcanic  action  from  these 
open  craters  will  give  the  index  of  the  disturbances  be 
neath  ;  and  when  obstructions  to  the  volcanic  vent  occurs, 
or  new  explosions  take  place  under  the  solid  crust,  there 
must  come  in  connection  all  the  violent  tremblings  and 
commotion  of  the  earthquake.  Continents  will  be  lifted  or 
depressed,  and  oceans  and  lakes  will  swell  or  subside,  and 
the  surface  necessarily  take  on  all  the  modifications  given 
to  it  by  the  movements  of  the  fused  mass  on  which  this 
superficial  crust  reposes. 

20.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  COMETARY  BODIES.— When  the 
fluid  and  variously  compounded  matter,  in  its  chaotic 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   COMETS.  221 

state,  has  been  very  generally  taken  up  and  wrought  into 
revolving  suns  and  systems  by  the  pressure  of  the  central 
forces,  there  must  still  be  a  residuum  which  has  worked 
itself  off  from,  or  which  has  never  been  taken  up  by  the 
wheeling  worlds  in  their  forming  state,  and  which  must  be 
subject  to  the  determination  of  these  forces  which  are  still 
working  in  the  midst  of  it.  Its  combination  chemically 
with  the  heat-force  has  given  to  it  a  different  composition 
from  the  primitive  ether,  and  a  greater  density  and  con 
sistency,  which  forbid  that  it  should  blend  and  mingle 
with  this  ethereal  matter  now  surrounding  the  ensphered 
worlds ;  it  must  thus  concentrate  itself  into  many  detached 
spherical  bodies,  and  which  must  be  of  much  greater 
rarity  than  the  suns  and  planetary  systems.  These 
varied  nebulous  globes  must  be  moved  by  the  impulses 
of  the  world-forming  forces,  yet  in  constant  though  dimin 
ished  activity,  and  must  also  feel  the  attractions  of  any 
world  to  which  they  make  an  approach.  As  the  universal 
ether  thus  clears  itself  by  these  nebulous  condensations, 
an  indefinite  number  of  such  rare  bodies,  larger  and 
smaller,  must  be  floating  between  the  worlds. 

While  thus  flitting  amid  the  open  spaces,  it  must  not 
unfrequently  occur  that  some  of  these  rare  bodies  will 
come  within  the  attractions  of  some  of  the  dense  systems. 
The  way  for  an  entrance  is  open  from  any  quarter,  and  the 
rate  of  velocity  may  be  as  various  as  the  compound  impul 
ses  which  urge  them  on,  but  so  soon  as  they  come  within 
the  gravitating  influence  of  any  system,  they  must  be  sub 
ject  to  laws  that  we  can  fully  estimate,  and  we  may  very 
fully  apprehend  the  results  that  must  be  determined  for 
them.  As  they  come  within  any  system,  they  must  move 


222       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

towards,  and  ultimately  fall  into,  or  pass  around,  the  cen 
tral  body  of  the  system.  In  thus  passing  about  the  centre, 
the  nebulous  body  must  take  on  one  of  the  following  forms 
in  the  track  which  it  makes ;  either  a  hyperbola,  a  para 
bola,  or  an  ellipse,  the  last  of  which  may  have  so  little 
eccentricity  as  to  approach  the  form  of  a  circle. 

When  the  compounded  impulse  and  attraction  shall 
give  the  hyperbolic  path,  the  body  must  pass  and  recede 
from  the  central  sun  in  a  diverging  course  from  that  by 
which  it  entered,  and  as  it  leaves  the  system  on  an  oppo 
site  side  from  its  entrance,  its  track  must  be  perpetually 
divergent,  and  the  action  of  its  present  forces  can  never 
lead  it  back  again  within  the  same  system.  Should  the 
compound  agency  determine  a  parabolic  course,  the  enter 
ing  body  must  also  pass  about  the  centre,  and  approach  to 
wards  a  parallel  direction  with  the  path  it  entered,  and 
keep  on  its  outward  way  in  a  perpetually  receding  journey. 
Many  may  so  pass  through  and  leave  a  particular  system, 
and  though  ever  afterwards  modified  in  direction  and 
velocity  by  it,  yet  never  again  visit  it. 

But  when  such  a  body  shall  so  enter  a  system  that  the 
momentum  it  brings,  and  the  attractions  it  receives,  shall 
shape  its  track  about  the  sun  to  an  ellipse,  it  is  then  caught 
by  the  system,  and  must  henceforth  abide  within  it,  unless 
some  subsequent  acceleration  or  retardation  should  induce 
its  movement  to  one  of  the  former  curves.  It  may  be 
anticipated  that  more  will  pass  through  a  given  system 
than  will  be  caught  and  retained  by  it,  but  that  many 
floating  nebulaB  must  so  be  arrested  by  particular  plane 
tary  systems,  the  known  conditions  are  too  favorable  for 
such  a  result  to  permit  that  the  facts  should  be  doubted. 


THE    PRINCIPLE    OF    STELLAR    DISTRIBUTION.  223 

Such  as  enter  more  nearly  in  the  plane  that  conforms 
with  the  general  planetary  orbits,  will  meet  the  most  in 
terfering  forces,  and  be  most  likely  to  be  kept  within  the 
system,  and  any  particular  system  will  have  the  greater 
probability  that  the  larger  number  of  such  bodies  which  it 
takes  into  its  company  will  be  in  orbits  that  are  in  the 
general  plane  of  its  planetary  bodies.  The  conditions  ad 
mit,  however,  that  such  bodies  may  become  incorporated 
with  the  system  from  any  quarter,  and  that  the  movements 
may  be  either  direct  or  retrograde  compared  with  the 
revolving  planets.  The  impulse  that  brings  the  body  in 
must  determine  in  composition  with  the  attractions  that 
the  body  finds,  what  eccentricity  shall  be  given  to  the 
orbit,  but  the  occasions  are  open  for  such  orbits  as  shall  be 
nearly  conformed  to  the  planets,  or  such  as  shall  in  ex 
treme  eccentricity  bring  their  perihelion  distance  close 
upon  the  margin  of  the  sun.  Some  may  have  their  orbits 
far  within  the  system;  some,  only  just  within  the  orbits  of 
the  outer  planets ;  and  some  may  stretch  their  orbits  far 
beyond  any  circling  world  the  system  knows.  All  such 
bodies,  occasional  or  constant,  are  properly  comets. 

21.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  STELLAR  DISTRIBUTION. — A  care 
ful  insight  will  determine  from  the  working  of  the  central 
forces  how  the  stars  must  arrange  themselves,  and  what  the 
shapes  and  localities  of  the  stellar  fields,  as  truly  as  how 
the  planets  must  be  arranged  in  their  respective  systems, 
and  what  shapes  the  planets  and  their  orbits  must  assume. 
The  principle  is  of  broader  application  and  controls  over 
the  universal  sphere,  but  it  is  as  thoroughly  intelligible  and 
readily  explicable  as  the  principles  which  determine  the 
bodies  and  their  revolutions  in  the  particular  planetary 


224:       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

system.  We  only  need  the  corresponding  care  and  pa 
tience  in  the  investigation. 

When  the  two  central  forces  work  in  unison,  the  antag 
onisms  form  and  maintain  in  constant  tension  the  spherical 
layers  that  enclose  the  centre,  and  which  have  their  mutual 
counteracting  pressure  in  their  equators,  and  the  diremp- 
tions  pass  out  in  the  equatorial  plane  and  down  between 
these  spherical  layers  to  the  poles,  and  keep  the  layers 
separate  by  this  heat-force  between  them.  If  the  diremp- 
tive  action  become  an  exact  balance  to  the  antagonist 
action,  these  spherical  layers  become  not  only  separated  by 
the  heat-force  between  them,  but  the  heat-force  permeates 
the  layers  themselves  and  just  dissolves  the  molecular 
forces  that  constitute  them,  and  thus  the  whole  internal 
structure  of  the  universal  sphere  becomes  separable  in  all 
its  molecules  on  every  side,  and  is  thoroughly  a  fluid. 

In  this  fluid  but  still  quiescent  because  equally  balanced 
state,  the  antagonist  spherical  layers  and  the  diremptive 
separating  forces  between  them  all  equally  counteract,  from 
the  opposite  poles,  in  the  equatorial  plane,  and  the  univer 
sal  sphere  becomes  a  composite  of  two  homogeneous  hemi 
spheres,  that  antagonize  altogether  with  each  other  in  the 
equatorial  plane,  just  as  the  semi-diameters  from  the  poles 
antagonize  with  each  other  in  the  centre.  A  diremptive 
action,  therefore,  now  going  on  at  the  centre  and  pushing 
out  its  divellent  heat-forces  into  the  universal  sphere,  would 
not  go  through  the  alternate  processes  of  polar  prolation 
and  oblation,  as  before  this  universal  dissolution  and  fluid 
ity  of  the  molecular  forces.  The  spherical  layers  being  dis 
solved  they  could  not  each  hold  the  diremption,  first  in  the 
static  polar  point  and  turning  it  thereby  to  a  transverse 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   STELLAR   DISTRIBUTION.          225 

action  in  the  equatorial  plane,  and  then  turning  the  diremp- 
tive  force  down  between  the  next  contiguous  layers  to  fix 
another  static  polar  point  exterior  to  the  first,  and  so  on 
through  all  the  layers  successively,  making  a  perpetual 
radiating  vibration ;  but  the  diremptive  action,  instead  of 
taking  this  alternate  leaping  process  from  layer  to  layer, 
will  now  be  able  to  pass  equably  right  on  through  the  dis 
solved  layers,  just  where  the  compounding  of  the  forces 
acting  shall  determine  the  direction  of  the  movement. 

And  precisely  the  direction  which  such  diremptive 
movement  must  take  is  the  one  now  to  be  determined  and 
followed  by  the  insight,  for  this  going  out  of  the  perpetual 
ly  generated  central  forces,  both  antagonist  and  diremptive 
in  conjunction,  into  the  fluid  molecules  of  the  sphere,  and 
thereby  more  densely  filling  up  the  ethereal  matter,  is  the 
very  process  by  which  the  chemically  chaotic  matter  as 
elementary  for  the  planetary  systems  with  their  central 
suns  is  to  be  constituted.  The  determining  where  in 
the  universal  sphere  this  chemical  material  is  to  be  formed, 
must  also  be  the  determining  where  the  systems  and  their 
suns  must  be  that  shall  be  formed  out  of  it. 

We  start,  therefore,  in  this  further  investigation,  with 
the  universal  matter  in  a  perfectly  fluid  and  quiescent  state, 
and  with  the  perpetual  generation  of  the  antagonist  and 
diremptive  forces  still  going  on  at  the  centre,  and  their 
conjoined  stream  forcing  itself  out  and  permeating  all 
through  the  ethereal  fluid,  and  we  must  look  at  the  com 
position  of  forces  here  at  work,  to  determine  where  this 
thickening  and  augmenting  world-material  must  arrange 
itself,  and  become  pressed  into  revolving  suns  and  systems. 
The  two  hemispheres  now  antagonize  and  hold  each  other 
15 


226       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

in  a  state  of  rest,  by  their  balanced  counteragency  in  their 
line  of  contact  in  the  equatorial  plane,  and  their  whole  fluid 
content  is  homogeneous.  How  then  must  the  augmenta 
tions  of  the  conjoined  antagonist  and  diremptive  forces  at 
the  centre,  distribute  and  arrange  themselves  ? 

The  hemispherical  pressure  is  generated  in  the  reactions 
of  the  central  antagonism,  and  in  the  aggregate  must  be 
as  the  cubes  of  the  axes  of  the  hemispheres.  The  greatest 
pressure,  at  any  point  in  the  equatorial  plane,  must  be  at 
the  centre,  where  the  hemispherical  axes  meet  and  counter 
work  each  other ;  and  any  point  in  the  equatorial  plane  out 
of  the  centre  must  have  its  pressure  inversely  as  the  cube 
of  its  distance  from  the  centre.  So,  also,  the  conjoined 
forces  generated  at  the  centre,  and  which  are  to  go  out 
against  the  hemispherical  pressure  and  permeate  the  ethe 
real  matter  of  the  universal  sphere,  have  their  greatest 
energy  at  the  centre,  and  any  points  in  the  equatorial  plane 
will  also  have  the  conjoined  forces  in  them  inversely  as  the 
cubes  of  their  distances  from  the  centre.  The  conjoined 
generated  forces  at  the  centre,  so  soon  as  they  rise  to  any 
excess  above  the  hemispherical  pressure,  must  move  out 
into  the  ethereal  fluid  matter  of  the  sphere  according  to  the 
determinations  of  the  compounding  of  these  forces,  viz.,  the 
conjunct  central  antagonist  and  diremptive  forces  crowding 
out  and  the  hemispherical  pressure  pushing  in,  and  these 
will  be  equal  at  the  centre,  and  of  equal  ratios  at  the  same 
distances  from  the  centre.  We  have  only  to  follow  such 
determinations,  and  the  distribution  of  the  world-material 
must  be  given. 

But  this  composition  of  the  hemispherical  pressure  and 
the  crowding  out  of  the  central  conjoint  forces  is  so  compli- 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   STELLAR   DISTRIBUTION. 


227 


cated,  that  we  here  first  find  the  expediency  of  referring  to 
a  diagram,  and  will  call  to  our  aid  the  representations  in 
the  accompanying  figure. 


Let  M  F  W  D  be  the  bisection  of  a  sphere  through 
its  polar  diameter  D  F,  and  the  line  of  the  equatorial  plane 
is  then  M  W.  The  hemispherical  pressure  is  thus  from 
the  poles  D  and  F  and  towards  the  centre  C,  and  holding 
itself  statically  at  rest  in  the  whole  line  of  the  hemispheri 
cal  junction  at  the  equatorial  plane  M  W. 

The  greatest  pressure  is  at  C,  and  from  the  direction 
each  way  in  the  hemispherical  axes  D  C  and  F  C.  Any 
point  out  of  the  centre  will  be  one  point  hi  the  circumfer 
ence  of  a  sphere  of  points  about  the  centre,  and  thus  have 
a  pressure,  compared  with  the  pressure  at  the  centre,  in 
versely  as  the  cube  of  its  distance  from  the  centre. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  conjoint  antagonist  and  diremp- 
tive  forces,  generated  at  C,  crowd  outward  in  the  opposite 


228       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

direction  against  the  hemispherical  pressure  D  C  and  F  C, 
and  when  at  all  in  excess  must  move  out  from  the  cen 
tre  C.  The  greatest  force  of  this  outcrowding  movement 
is  in  the  source  C,  and  any  point  out  of  the  centre  must 
have  its  outcrowding  force,  as  compared  with  that  at  the 
centre,  inversely  as  the  cube  of  its  distance  from  the  centre, 
since  it  must  be  a  point  in  the  surface  of  a  sphere  of  points 
which  have  been  crowded  out  from  the  centre. 

Take  then  the  conjoint  forces  in  their  perpetual  genera 
tion  at  the  centre,  and  so  soon  as  they  rise  to  any  excess 
of  energy  above  the  hemispherical  pressure,  there  must  be 
a  movement  out  of  the  centre,  the  tendency  of  which  will 
be  in  the  direction  of  the  equatorial  plane  M  W  all  about 
the  centre,  and  perpendicular  to  the  hemispherical  pressure 
at  the  centre.  But  as  soon  as  there  is  an  arising  out  of  the 
centre,  the  hemispherical  pressure  diminishes  on  both  the 
sides  D  and  F,  and  there  must  be  a  parting  of  the  conjoint 
forces  on  each  side  of  the  equatorial  plane,  and  a  com 
pounding  of  one  part  with  the  hemispherical  pressure  on 
one  side  D,  and  a  compounding  of  the  other  part  with  the 
hemispherical  pressure  on  the  other  side  F,  and  this  com 
position  of  forces  of  equal  ratios,  inversely  as  the  cubes  of 
their  distances  from  the  centre,  must  make  the  movements 
to  be  an  ensphering,  by  two  spherical  strata  one  on  each 
side  of  the  centre,  of  the  compressed  ethereal  matter  into 
two  globes  whose  diameters  shall  be  the  two  hemispherical 
axes  D  C  and  F  C.  Within  these  globes  of  the  compressed 
ethereal  fluid,  the  conjoint  antagonist  and  diremptive  forces 
cannot  crowd  themselves,  but  must  move  and  form  their 
stratum,  of  the  new  elemental  chaotic  matter  they  now 
make,  in  these  two  enclosing  hollow  spheres  D  H  C  and  F 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF    STELLAR   DISTRIBUTION.  229 

I  C.  The  onward  generation  of  these  conjoint  central 
forces  must  then  make  its  movement  out  from  the  centre 
C,  into  the  equatorial  plane  M  W  above  the  two  spherical 
strata  D  H  C  and  FIG,  and  ensphere  them  by  a  superim 
posed  stratum  upon  each  of  them;  and  thence  onward 
again  by  other  superimposed  strata  on  each  side,  till  there 
shall  come,  in  the  growing  strata,  an  equilibration  to  the 
central  generating  energy,  and  the  formations  of  further 
strata  will  then  cease. 

The  superincumbent  strata  cannot  be  complete  spheres, 
but  perpetually  diminishing  portions  of  constantly  enlarg 
ing  spheres,  till  they  come  to  the  universal  circumference, 
where  they  must  be  the  periphery  of  the  two  hemispheres. 
For,  take  any  point  out  of  the  centre  in  the  equatorial 
plane,  as  E,  and  at  that  point  both  the  hemispherical  pres 
sure  and  the  outcrowding  conjoint  central  forces  have  alike 
diminished,  and  are  inversely  as  the  cubes  of  their  distance 
from  the  centre,  and  therefore  the  spherical  strata  E  D  E 
and  E  F  E  must  be  less  each  than  a  complete  sphere,  by 
the  spherical  arcs  in  each  whose  cords  must  respectively  be 
double  the  distance  E  C,  that  is  E  E.  And  the  same  may 
be  shown  for  any  other  points  beyond  E,  as  B  and  A,  and 
thus  on  to  the  circumference  M ;  where  the  spherical  strata 
on  each  side  at  B  must  be  of  a  larger  sphere  than  those  at 
E,  but  a  less  portion  of  a  complete  sphere  by  the  difference 
of  an  arc  of  a  sphere  whose  cord  is  double  the  distance  B 
C ;  and  on  each  side  at  A  a  still  larger  sphere,  but  less  a 
complete  sphere  by  the  spherical  arc  of  a  longer  cord  that 
is  double  the  distance  A  C ;  and  then  at  M  the  spherical 
stratum  becomes  the  extent  of  the  universal  sphere,  but 
less  a  complete  sphere  by  the  arc  of  a  hemisphere,  or  an 


230        THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

arc  whose  cord  is  double  the  distance  M  C.  The  whole 
thickening  of  the  fluid  ether  and  formation  of  the  chemi 
cally  chaotic  world-material  must  be  out  of  and  beyond  the 
two  central  globes  of  compressed  ether  D  H  C  and  FIG, 
and  with  the  incumbent  strata  successively  of  enlarging 
spheres,  but  diminishing  portions  of  the  spheres  till  the 
hemispherical  periphery  is  reached. 

When  this  matter  has  been  made  too  dense  for  the  con 
joint  central  forces  to  penetrate  it,  then  must  the  stream  of 
these  forces  drive  it  into  whirling  spheres,  and  these 
spheres  into  suns  and  revolving  systems,  and  the  general 
planes  of  the  orbits  of  the  systems  must  be  at  right-angles 
to  the  tangents  of  these  spherical  strata,  in  which  the  im 
pulse  of  the  system-forming  forces  must  move.  The  place 
for  all  stars  and  systems  must  therefore  be  in  the  regions 
beyond  the  central  hollow  globes,  or  globes  of  pure  com 
pressed  ether,  D  H  C  and  F  I  C,  and  within  the  circuit  of 
the  universal  sphere  M  F  W  D.  The  stellar  strata  must  be 
the  thickest  near  the  centre,  and  diminish  as  they  recede 
towards  the  universal  surface ;  and  the  greatest  number  of 
systems  and  their  central  suns  must  be  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  equatorial  plane,  and  the  stars  pretty  rapidly  dimin 
ish  in  numbers  as  they  stand  back  from  the  equatorial  plane 
towards  the  universal  polar  regions.  Inasmuch  also,  as  the 
outcrowding  currents  will  not  work  the  chaotic  matter 
into  suns  and  systems,  until  they  have  driven  it  some  dis 
tance  back  from  the  equatorial  plane,  so  there  must  be  a 
vacancy  of  stars  on  each  side  of  the  equatorial  plane,  di 
verging  from  the  centre  as  the  matter  grows  thinner, 
and  represented  in  the  figure  by  the  waving  lines  that 
fade  away  toward  the  confines  of  the  universe. 


THE   LIFE   FORCE.  231 

When  the  interstellary  spaces  are  again  cleared  from  all 
but  the  primitive  ether,  the  central  forces,  though  not 
accumulating,  will  still  flow  through  these  ethereal  seas, 
and  must  necessarily  waft  the  floating  stars  into  varied 
island  groups,  and  their  distance  and  positions  must  give  to 
a  spectator  from  any  one,  all  the  varied  phenomena  of  stel 
lar  clusters,  and  unresolved  nebulae,  and  changing  position 
without  revolving  motion. 

LIFE. 

Up  to  this  point  we  have  followed  the  generating  and 
arranging  forces  working  in  and  from  the  centre,  and  stu 
pendous  as  have  been  the  results  in  the  determinations  of 
universal  nature,  they  have  still  been  merely  mechanical, 
and  the  same  operations  perpetuated  endlessly  can  never 
lift  themselves  above  the  sphere  of  matter,  nor  produce 
any  thing  beyond  material  and  mechanical  changes  in 
nature.  How  the  universal  cosmos  may  be  originated, 
and  how  it  must  then  be  orderly  and  harmoniously  ar 
ranged  by  the  determinations  of  its  central  forces,  and  the 
wonderful  beauty  that  comes  out  in  the  consummated 
structure,  may  all  be  apprehended  in  the  rational  process 
which  we  have  so  carefully  and  extensively  pursued.  Still 
the  whole,  vast  and  complicated  yet  orderly  as  it  is,  can  be 
nothing  but  a  magnificent  machine;  its  whole  substance 
is  the  balance  of  static,  and  its  whole  causal  energy  is  the 
preponderance  of  dynamic  forces.  We  have  the  forces  in 
which  matter  is,  and  the  principles  of  their  working  deter 
mining  what  matter  does,  but  all  is  mechanically  pushed 
or  pulled  into  its  shape  and  proportions. 


232       THE   ETEKNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

This  mechanism  will  work  on  in  the  worlds,  and  when 
the  superficial  strata  have  cooled  and  hardened  to  a  per 
manent  crust  that  admits  collected  gases  to  combine  and 
form  themselves  into  vapors  and  mist,  and  these  condens 
ing  in  water,  which,  as  superincumbent  upon  the  solid 
earth,  gathers  itself  into  ocean  beds,  and  then  both  land 
and  water  become  enveloped  by  an  atmosphere  through 
which  everywhere  the  radiations  of  light  are  reflected  and 
diffused,  there  then  comes  an  occasion  for  a  higher  order 
of  existence  than  any  chemical  combinations  or  crystalline 
concretions  can  reach.  The  eternal  archetypes  of  organic 
being  are  in  the  Absolute  Reason  as  a  distinct  kind  of  ex 
istence,  where  the  one  activity  is  everywhere  within  itself 
both  means  and  end,  and  making  the  whole  to  minister  to 
each  part  as  truly  as  each  part  ministers  to  the  whole,  and 
such  archetypal  being  must,  for  the  consistency  and  satis 
faction  of  reason  itself,  be  somehow  embodied  in  objective 
manifestation  and  actual  realization.  It  behooves  the 
Absolute  Spirit  for  reason's  sake,  or  which  is  just  the  same 
meaning  in  other  words,  for  the  sake  of  his  own  glory, 
that  he  superinduce  upon  the  forces  now  working  in  na 
ture  a  higher  force,  that  may  take  these  mechanical  forces 
into,  its  service,  and  use  them  without  destroying  them  for 
its  own  organific  purposes.  They  can  make  exact  combi 
nations  in  all  chemical  substances,  and  build  up  layer  by 
layer  about  a  nucleus  the  geometrical  solids  of  all  crystal 
line  bodies,  but  in  all  these  cases  the  work  goes  on  solely 
by  accumulation  of  parts.  The  least  portion  of  an  earth, 
or  metal,  or  crystal,  is  a  unit  as  perfect  in  itself  as  the 
aggregation  of  the  largest  bodies,  and  no  possible  working 
of  such  forces  in  accumulation,  can  make  the  whole  to  be 


THE   LIFE   FORCE.  233 

an  organism,  where  no  part  is  a  unit  without  the  whole 
and  the  unity  of  the  whole  depends  upon  the  presence  of 
every  part.  As  well  might  material  nature  have  origi 
nated  from  the  empty  void  at  first,  as  that  now  this  new 
and  higher  form  of  existence  in  an  organic  being  should 
come  out  of  a  nature  which  exists  only  in  mechanical 
forces.  From  nothing,  nothing  comes ;  out  of  material 
mechanism  living  organism  can  never  arise.  Organic  ex 
istence  should  be,  for  reason  sees  that  mechanical  forces 
are  incomplete  without  a  superinduction  of  living  forces ; 
the  Absolute  Spirit  cannot  approve  to  himself  his  own 
work,  nor  rest  satisfied  in  the  glory  of  his  own  being,  by 
stopping  in  his  creating  and  governing  agency  with  the 
material ;  he  must  put  the  vital  also  within  the  material, 
and  so  overrule  and  use  mechanical  forces,  that  while  they 
continue  to  be  still  matter,  that  matter  shall  no  longer  be 
an  extrinsic  combination,  but  an  intrinsic  living  assimila 
tion  and  incorporation. 

This  new  creating  work  is  not  now  needed  at  the 
great  centre  of  the  universe.  All  that  is  material  and 
mechanical  gathers  itself  for  its  sustentation  and  direction 
immediately  back  within  the  great  central  working  sources, 
but  while  these  central  agencies  thus  uphold  and  guide  all 
nature's  substances  and  causes,  it  now  needs  that  the 
Creator  put  his  hand  upon  nature,  and  work  his  origina 
tions  in  the  midst  of  the  material  elements  that  lie  prepared 
upon  the  surface.  That  new  creation  must  be  such  as 
shall  vitalize  and  organize  these  material  elements,  and  the 
task  now  is  to  gain  so  distinct  an  idea  of  this  vital  force, 
that  while  it  shall  fully  discriminate  itself  from  all  antago 
nist  and  diremptive  activities,  it  shall  also  be  a  sufficient 


234:       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

ground  for  the  insight  of  reason  to  see  how  the  great  prin 
ciples  of  life  and  organization  are  determined  necessarily 
and  universally  from  it.  As  the  antagonist  force  was  more 
plainly  read  by  the  reason  than  the  diremptive,  so  it  may 
be  anticipated  that  the  organic  forces  will  be  more  hidden 
than  the  mechanical — the  principles  of  life  will  have  a 
deeper  mystery  than  those  of  gravity  and  magnetism,  or 
even  of  heat  and  light,  and  must  be  longer  studied  before 
they  can  mature  into  a  completed  philosophy. 

22.  LIFE  AN  ASSIMILATIVE  FORCE. — The  Antagonist 
Activity  is  a  force  from  its  own  working;  it  counter 
works  upon  itself  at  every  point,  and  thus  doubles  back 
each  way  upon  itself  oil  each  side  out  of  the  point  of  antag 
onism.  The  diremptive  activity  is  no  force  in  itself  beyond 
the  mere  point  of  diremption;  it  outworks  from  itself  in 
every  point,  and  thus  discedes  and  disparts  from  itself  on 
each  side  out  of  the  point  of  the  divellent  action.  Were  it 
to  work  in  a  void,  it  could  never  fill  it,  but  must  perpet 
ually  be  leaping  each  way  from  the  points  occupied.  Di 
remptive  forces,  working  in  and  among  antagonist  forces, 
become  truly  determinable  forces,  for  they  are  held  and 
work  in  determinate  spaces  by  the  antagonisms  they  are 
perpetually  encountering.  There  may  thus  be  perpetual 
solution  and  combination,  resolution  and  recombination, 
through  all  time,  and  to  as  great  a  variety  as  the  arith 
metical  permutation  of  given  quantities  in  the  directions 
and  degrees  of  energy  shall  permit.  But  the  activity  we 
now  seek  in  idea  must  be  one  that  can  use  these  for  its 
own  ends,  and  while  it  makes  them  work  for  it,  it  must 
also  work  in  and  through  all  of  them  which  it  uses,  so  as 
to  make  them  to  become  the  common  members  of  the  one 


LIFE   AN   ASSIMILATIVE   FOKCE.  235 

Complete  organism.  In  a  word,  we  must  have  an  agency 
that  can  take  the  material  agents  to  itself,  and  assimilate 
them  to  each  other  in  itself,  and  so  state  or  posit  them  in 
continuation  that  Avhile  it  shall  be  their  builder,  they  shall 
become  its  body,  and  both  together  constitute  an  existence 
that  has  unity  and  identity  throughout.  It  must  draw 
that  which  is  without  itself  into  itself,  and  incorporate  it 
with  itself,  and  thus  truly  it  will  organize  itself  in  living 
matter. 

That  which  takes  to  itself,  or  draws  in  from  without, 
must  originate  a  movement  to  which  the  without  may  be  a 
condition  or  an  occasion,  but  for  which  it  cannot  be  a 
cause.  There  must  be  Undrawing  before  there  can  be  ex- 
hausting;  the  spontaneity  of  the  organific  agency  must 
thus  be  on  the  inside.  The  living  force  must  first  act,  or 
the  mechanical  forces  can  never  become  assimilated  and 
incorporated ;  they  might  continue  to  act  upon  each  other, 
but  can  never  else  be  made  to  interpenetrate  each  other. 
We  take  then  a  simple  spiritual  activity,  of  which  we  can 
predicate  in  itself  neither  extension  nor  duration,  for  it  has 
no  where  in  order  that  we  might  determine  place,  and  no 
when  in  order  that  we  might  determine  period ;  but  we 
put  it  into  the  midst  of  nature's  space-filling  and  time- 
during  forces,  and  let  it  register  its  action  in  them,  and 
we  can  determine  for  it  both  a  space  and  a  time.  Itself 
spiritual,  and  perpetually  in  itself  maintaining  its  own  sim 
plicity  of  agency,  and  thus  wholly  incognizable  by  any 
sense,  its  working  upon  the  material  forces  that  impress 
themselves  upon  the  senses,  gives  its  results  in  matter  to 
become  phenomenal,  and  thus  the  modifications  which  the 
living  force  makes  of  matter,  may  be  readily  subject  to 


236        THE   ETERNAL   PEINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVEKSE. 

human  experience.  To  the  reason's  eye,  we  must  there 
fore  subject  this  spiritual  life-force,  that  we  may  therein 
determine  the  principles  of  its  modification  of  matter,  and 
the  conditions  under  which  it  must  build  its  body  for  any 
sensible  manifestation. 

This  simple  spiritual  activity  can  in  itself  fix  upon  no 
place,  nor  hold  itself  in  any  position,  and  it  may  thus  be 
said  to  have  a  want,  and  must  necessarily  act  for  its  sup 
ply,  and  thus  seek  some  of  the  material  forces  against 
which  it  may  work  and  balance  and  sustain  itself.  Though 
all  unconscious  of  its  wants  and  of  the  adaptations  in  mate 
rial  forces  for  its  supply  and  relief,  yet  will  the  activity  go 
out  spontaneously  to  its  appropriate  material  forces  as  if  it 
had  already  a  sentient  guide  and  directory.  Some  of  the 
material  forces  in  nature  will  be  fit  for  its  use,  and  will 
readily  combine  with  it,  and  thus  fix  it  in  position  by  coun 
ter-working  with  it  and  truly  becoming  assimilated  in  it. 
In  thus  combining  with  the  life-force,  the  material  force 
will  part  with  some  of  its  own  activities,  and  become 
thereby  new  substance  in  its  assimilation  and  combination 
with  the  living  spiritual  activity ;  and  leaving  also  the  ac 
tivities  in  the  forces  used,  which  become  liberated  in  the 
vital  combination,  to  combine  anew  with  other  material 
forces  about  them,  it  will  thereby  change  also  the  sub 
stances  in  material  nature.  There  will  thus  be  truly  a 
vital  chemistry,  both  in  the  new  living  combinations,  and 
in  the  changed  combinations  in  matter  from  the  unused 
activities  liberated  in  the  vital  action,  and  recombining 
with  the  material  forces  about  them.  It  is,  however,  only 
with  the  combinations  immediately  made  with  the  vital 
activity,  that  we  now  need  to  have  any  dealing.  The 


LIFE   AN   ASSIMILATIVE   FOKCE.  237 

spiritual  activity  combines  with  such  material  activities  as  it 
finds  fitted  to  its  want,  and  thus  fixes  itself  to  them  and  in 
them,  and  they  become  a  new  substance  by  being  thus 
taken  up  hi  the  life-force.  Matter  and  spirit  are  in  this 
truly  blended,  and  the  life-force  is  no  longer  merely  spir 
itual  activity,  and  the  matter  is  no  longer  mere  gross 
mechanism,  but  this  third  thing  as  a  mere  substance  is  in 
differently,  either  life  embodied  or  matter  vitalized. 

This  vitalizing  and  thus  assimilating  and  corporealizing 
process  necessarily  makes  new  voids  in  the  old  material 
forces.  The  life-force  has  taken  in  and  thus  taken  away 
from  their  places  the  forces  and  activities  it  has  used,  and 
thereby  a  vacuum  at  once  supervenes  between  the  living 
corpuscle  and  the  mechanical  molecule,  and  the  forces  of 
nature  must  at  once  press  up  and  bring  new  matter  to  the 
living  action,  which  is  also  used  in  new  living  combinations, 
and  thus  the  living  body  continually  feeds  upon  these  new 
materials  and  grows  by  their  successive  assimilations  and 
incorporations.  As  an  activity  combining  with  the  mate 
rial  forces  and  taking  them  up  into  itself,  the  vital  action 
may  be  termed  an  assimilative  force  /  and  as  thus  making 
a  void  for  external  nature  to  pass  through  up  to  the  work 
ing  activity,  it  may  be  known  as  an  indrawing  or  an  in- 
haustive  force,  and  either  may  hereafter  be  applied  as  the 
particular  application  may  determine  to  be  the  most  appro 
priate.  The  assimilating  is  truly  the  work  of  the  life-force, 
and  is  first ;  the  void  thus  made  becomes  the  occasion  for 
the  indrawing,  and  which  is  truly  nothing  but  the  inpressing 
of  nature,  and  thus  the  life-force  uses  nature  in  two  ways, 
both  for  its  own  want  hi  the  fixing  and  stating  itself  in 
combination  with  matter,  and  in  making  the  material  mole- 


238       THE   ETERNAL   PEINCIPLES   OF   THE   TTNIVEESE. 

cules  to  press  themselves  through  the  voids  made  by  former 
assimilations  up  to  the  spiritual  activity,  and  thereby  supply 
new  material  for  further  assimilation  and  growth. 

And  inasmuch  as  the  life-force  works  spontaneously  for 
its  own  wants,  so  in  this  must  it  be  an  agent  working 
toward  ends,  and  determined  in  its  activity  by  just  the 
wants  and  therefore  the  ends  inherent  in  it.  And  this  must 
make  it  a  formative  force,  having  a  nisus  formativus  or 
form-making  principle  in  the  spiritual  activity  itself.  The 
form  in  the  rain-drop,  and  in  the  crystal,  is  in  all  the  many 
drops  of  the  shower  and  in  all  the  many  portions  of  the 
crystal,  but  the  form  in  the  living  body  is  one  already  in 
the  life-force,  and  works  itself  out  and  registers  itself  in  the 
living  body.  All  living  forms  are  thus  determined  in  the 
specific  life-force,  and  the  whole  body  must  be  built  up  as  a 
self-realizing  product  of  the  spirit.  General  resemblances 
may  enable  to  classify  living  bodies  into  their  kingdom, 
class,  order,  tribe,  family,  and  genus.  These  classifications 
rest  on  extrinsic  and  contingent  relationships,  but  where 
the  distinction  is  that  of  type  in  the  primitive  vital  force, 
and  which  is  brought  out  in  manifestation  in  the  progeni 
tor,  and  is  individually  carried  down  through  all  the  de 
scendants,  the  classification  is  then  of  specific  differences 
and  not  of  general  resemblances,  and  is  first  into  different 
species,  these  species  into  different  races,  and  these  into 
different  varieties. 

When  the  specific  life-force  is  once  embodied  in  its  or 
ganized  material  assimilations,  it  must  keep  on  ever  work 
ing  in  the  same  body,  growing  as  it  extends  itself  in  new 
combinations,  and  when  these  augmented  combinations 
have  extended  so  far  as  to  equalize  the  assimilative  force, 


LIFE   AN    ASSIMILATIVE   FOKCE.  239 

and  balance  the  new  assimilations  only  against  the  old 
absorptions  and  exclusions,  the  body  has  then  come  to  its 
adult  and  mature  stature,  and  while  ceasing  its  growth  it 
will  perpetuate  its  form  and  proportions.  When  the  bal 
ance  turns  against  the  life-force,  and  from  disease  or  age 
the  assimilations  cannot  repair  the  lesions,  the  body  must 
decay  and  the  life-force  become  disembodied.  As  the  life- 
force  overruled  and  used  the  material  forces,  so  in  all  cases 
of  partial  or  total  disembodiment,  the  material  forces 
again  take  on  their  old  unhindered  working,  and  what  was 
living  body  becomes  again  dead  mechanical  matter,  and 
falls  into  the  conditioned  successions  and  changes  of  its  old 
mechanical  forces,  and  we  have  death  and  dissolution. 

But  as  the  death  and  dissolution  of  the  individual 
occurs,  provision  must  be  made  for  the  generation  of  suc 
cessors  and  thereby  the  perpetuation  of  the  species.  From 
the  ancestral  stock  there  must  be  the  setting  off  an  instal 
ment  of  the  life  force  in  a  new  germ,  and  which  may  begin 
its  own  process  of  assimilation  and  growth,  and  instead  of 
stating  or  positing  itself  in  its  parental  body,  may  separate 
itself  wholly  from  that,  and  build  up  to  maturity  its  own 
independent  body,  and  thus  the  species  propagate  its  suc 
cessive  generations.  In  order  to  such  generation,  the  prin 
ciple  of  sex  is  necessary.  The  life-force  in  the  one  sex 
must  go  over  into  some  prepared  receptacle  of  congenial 
nourishment  from  the  other  sex,  and  a  double  gender  can 
alone  procreate  a  new  offspring.  Nor  is  it  consistent  with 
the  demands  of  reason  that  the  original  types  of  organic 
being  should  be  marred  and  confounded  by  a  promiscuous 
generation,  and  the  necessities  of  nature  will  also  second 
this  demand  of  reason,  for  the  receptacle  afforded  by  one 


24:0       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

gender  in  a  species  cannot  contain  the  appropriate  nourish 
ment  for  the  living  force  imparted  by  the  other  gender  in 
a  different  species,  and  hence  opposite  sexes  in  different 
species  should  not  and  cannot  procreate,  or  if  they  do  for 
once,  the  hybrid  progeny  must  be  barren.  The  individuals 
must  have  their  separate  gender,  the  species  lives  on  in  the 
generations  of  both  its  own  sexes.  Life  must  thus  work 
on  in  cycles,  and  each  species  perpetuate  itself  in  the  per 
petual  propagation  of  new  individuals.  The  propagated 
life-force,  though  beginning  a  new  assimilation  and  incorpo 
ration  of  its  own,  will  be  still  slowly  exhausting  the  original 
energy,  and  thus  at  last  the  species  must  die  out  in  the  de 
terioration  of  its  members,  and  new  species  must  be  put 
again  into  nature,  to  run  their  cycle  conformed  to  the 
altered  chemical  combinations  in  the  world  of  matter 
around  them. 

23.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  VEGETABLE  LIFE. — The  life-force 
is  in  itself  a  spiritual  activity  which  works  according  to 
wants,  and  therefore  in  reference  to  ends,  and  is  first  an 
assimilative  force  by  virtue  of  its  combining  other  forces  in 
it,  and  then  consequently  an  indrawing  or  inhaustive  force 
by  occasion  of  the  vacuum  which  the  vital  combination 
secures  between  the  living  corpuscle  and  the  material 
molecules  about  it,  and  the  forcing  in  of  these  material 
molecules  upon  the  point  of  vital  action  by  their  own  inhe 
rent  antagonist  working,  and  thus  affording  a  perpetual 
supply  to  the  life-force  for  perpetual  assimilations.  Such 
combination  of  the  life-force  with  the  material  forces  thus 
brought  into  concretion  becomes  a  germ,  and  has  in  it  and 
with  it  all  the  elements  and  rudiments  of  the  future  mature 
organism.  The  life-force  can  make  no  possible  manifesta- 


THE   PEINCIPLE   OF   VEGETABLE   LIFE.  241 

tion  of  itself  in  its  simple  spiritual  being,  and  must  at  once 
seek  to  combine  itself  with  congenial  material  forces.  Such 
combination  in  any  way  and  to  any  degree  of  completeness 
will  be  a  germ,  and  may  go  on  to  complete  envelopment  in 
matter,  and  then  on  to  complete  development  in  the  adult 
organism,  but  that  germ  only  which  is  constituted  through 
the  medium  of  the  sexes,  and  which  by  its  own  growth 
separates  itself  from  the  parent  stock,  is  properly  a  seed, 
and  in  which  the  species  perpetuates  itself  by  multiplying 
itself  into  innumerable  successive  individuals. 

Now,  the  primitive  created  germ  must  have  been  this 
originated  spiritual  life-force  from  the  Absolute  Spirit  and 
its  combination  immediately  with  the  congenial  material 
forces  in  the  place  where  it  was  set,  and  in  its  simplest  and 
earliest  form  of  working  we  may  trace  it  out  from  the 
already  attained  idea,  and  we  shall  have  the  principle  of 
vegetation  that  must  determine  the  laws  in  the  facts  of  all 
coming  experience.  This  primitive  germ,  and  equally  so 
with  every  matured  sexually  constituted  seed,  must  have 
its  Avant,  and  thus  its  end  of  acting.  Disregarding  here  all 
specific  wants,  and  which  in  their  distinction  only  separate 
the  different  species,  we  seize  only  upon  the  generic  wants, 
and  thus  attain  the  ends  that  must  be  common  to  all  vege 
table  species,  or  the  whole  kingdom  of  plants  and  trees. 

The  first  want,  and  thus  the  first  end  to  be  attained  in 
the  growing  germ,  is  the  perpetual  and  abundant  supply 
of  material  forces  that  may  be  combined  with  it,  and  thus 
its  first  growth  and  development  must  be  in  the  direction 
and  out  into  the  midst  of  such  congenial  material  forces. 
These  are  found  in  the  soil  of  the  earth  beneath  and  in  the 
gaseous  atmosphere  above,  and  the  very  necessity  of  the 
16 


24:2       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

germ  must  send  its  roots  downward  and  its  stock  and 
branches  upward.  What  grows  downward  will  adapt  it 
self  to  its  destined  ends  in  its  constituted  wants,  and  the 
root  will  have  its  distinguishing  characteristics,  and  so  what 
grows  upward  will  in  the  same  way  conform  to  its  end,  and 
the  branch,  bud,  and  leaf,  will  have  their  peculiar  charac 
teristics.  All  radicles  must  thus  differ  from  their  stock 
and  branches,  for  the  wants  of  the  whole  plant  make  both 
necessary,  and  each  a  necessity  in  its  own  peculiar  end  for 
the  grand  general  end  of  the  whole,  and  hence  each  must 
be  fitted  for  its  own  function,  and  the  whole  plant,  root, 
stock,  and  leaf,  becomes  an  organic  existence,  having  unity 
and  identity  in  every  part,  and  the  whole  as  truly  a  means 
for  the  end  of  each  part  as  each  part  is  a  means  for  the 
grand  end  of  the  whole. 

The  material  forces  which  are  to  be  combined  and  as 
similated,  will  be  diffused  through  the  soil  beneath  and  the 
air  above,  hence  the  radicles  will  separate  themselves  on 
all  sides  through  the  soil,  and  the  branches  on  all  sides 
through  the  air,  or  go  off  successively,  and  more  or  less 
diffusively  as  the  plant  needs,  from  a  tap-root  below  and  a 
main  trunk  above.  The  life-force  must  thus  grow  out 
each  way  from  its  salient  point,  and  assimilate  and  incor 
porate  itself  in  the  material  plant,  as  all  together  in  root, 
stock  and  branches,  making  one  organic  identity.  This 
order  of  growth  determines  the  working  of  the  life-force 
perpetually  to  the"  surface.  The  supply  of  material  to  be 
used  is  both  exterior  and  adjacent  to  the  assimilative 
forces,  and  is  immediately  combined  with  them  by  per 
petual  accretions  superficially,  except  as  enclosed  and  de 
fended  by  an  exterior  rind  or  bark,  which  is  itself  rather 


THE    PRINCIPLE    OF   VEGETABLE    LIFE.  243 

an  exuvia  than  the  product  of  a  living  process.  The  per 
petual  assimilations  all  along  the  course  of  the  living  pro 
cess,  must  perpetually  keep  open  continuous  pores,  through 
which  the  external  forces  of  nature  must  be  constantly 
supplying  the  pabulum  for  further  accretions.  The  central 
part  only  of  the  trunk  and  roots  will  maintain  itself  in  vi 
tality  and  in  solid  consistency  proportioned  to  the  inten 
sity  of  the  fibre  incorporated,  but  all  new  growth  of  the 
plant  must  be  superficial.  The  ongoing  of  the  assimilating 
process  is  still  perpetually  from  the  salient  point  between 
the  rooting  downwards  and  the  branching  upwards,  and 
hence  along  the  vacant  pores  all  the  way  up  the  trunk 
and  branches,  the  new  matter  for  new  assimilations  is  suc 
cessively  incorporated,  and  the  terminations  must  be  in  a 
bud  that  perpetually  turns  itself  outward  in  development, 
and  maintains  itself  as  a  bud  in  constant  self-reduplication. 
The  bud  must  also  perpetually  leave  its  vitalized  substance 
behind  it,  posited  as  a  solid  and  extended  branch,  which 
henceforth  has  its  concretions  on  the  outside,  as  the  matter 
for  vital  assimilation  comes  up  in  the  pores  that  open  on 
the  points  where  the  life-force  is  incessantly  working. 

Each  bud  is  thus  a  complete  germ,  being  a  whole  with 
in  itself,  and  each  branch  a  complete  plant,  so  that  the 
whole  vegetable  organism,  though  in  itself  a  unit,  may 
multiply  itself  by  slips,  and  grafts,  and  buds,  and  the  one 
plant  still  remain  in  vigorous  growth,  while  its  detached 
portions  may  send  out  new  roots  in  another  soil,  or  have 
their  pores  kept  open  for  new  assimilations,  by  the  life- 
force  of  another  stock  within  which  they  may  have  been 
inserted.  And  though  the  root  and  branch  differ  from 
each  other  in  their  characteristics  in  their  places,  yet  is 


244       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

this  difference  only  in  characteristic  and  not  of  kind,  for  by 
change  of  place  there  may  be  made  a  change  of  function, 
and  the  branch  send  off  its  roots,  and  the  root  send  out  its 
buds  and  leaves. 

Such  must  be  the  principle  of  vegetative  life  in  general, 
and  yet  it  is  manifest  that  many  specific  differences  may 
abound,  and  both  the  demands  of  reason  in  securing  gen 
eral  order  and  specific  variety,  and  the  adaptations  in 
nature  of  fitting  forces  to  be  assimilated  by  only  congenial 
spiritual  activities,  will  make  many  differing  species  of 
plants  to  be  a  necessity.  As  the  chemical  development  in 
matter  goes  on,  the  life-force  will  be  interposed  by  the 
Creator ;  and  the  incorporation  into  a  germ,  and  the 
development  of  the  germ  to  the  mature  plant,  and  the 
multiplication  of  the  plant  in  its  many  seeds,  will  all  con 
form  to  the  maturity  and  completeness  of  adaptation  in 
the  geological  process.  The  earlier  will  doubtless  be  the 
least  complicated,  and  while  primitive  species  may  be 
enormous  both  in  number  and  size,  yet  the  more  complete 
and  perfect  types  of  plants  must  be  reserved  for  the  more 
mature  and  elaborate  chemical  and  geological  prepara 
tions.  Many  old  species  of  plants  may  wholly  die  out, 
and  have  their  being  only  in  fossil  preservations,  before 
the  more  perfect  types  and  specimens  of  vegetative  life  can 
be  introduced,  to  incorporate  themselves  into  sufficiently 
sublimated  material  elements. 

24.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  ANIMAL  LIFE. — The  life-force 
elaborates  the  vegetable  organism  immediately  from  the 
chemically  prepared  elements  in  matter,  and  overrules  and 
assimilates  mere  mechanical  forces,  and  combines  them  by 
its  own  agency,  as  a  higher  form  of  vital  chemistry,  into  a 


THE   PKINCIPLE   OF   ANIMAL   LIFE.  245 

new  substance  that  may  be  called  living  body.  But  the 
most  perfect  and  stupendous  forms  of  vegetable  life  must 
be  circumscribed  within  this  sphere  of  superficial  assimila 
tion  and  inhaustive  supply  through  the  pores  made  void 
by  the  used-up  mechanical  elements.  A  perpetual  indraw- 
ing  and  incorporating  preserves  the  growth  and  health  of 
the  plant,  but  in  this  way  the  life  can  be  that  of  the  plant 
only,  whether  it  be  an  annual  or  endure  for  centuries. 
By  no  cultivation  and  favoring  conditions  can  the  vegeta 
ble  pass  the  boundaries  of  its  proper  jurisdiction,  and  leap 
within  some  higher  kingdom. 

But  it  is  clear  that  reason  cannot  satisfy  its  own 
demands  in  making  the  vegetable  an  ultimate  end.  It  is  a 
higher  form  of  existence  than  any  merely  mechanical  force 
can  constitute,  and  is  thus  an  advance  in  nature;  but 
nature  might  go  on  her  ceaseless  round  of  chemical 
changes  and  vegetable  products,  yet  that  one  plant  should 
live  and  grow  only  to  produce  another  of  its  own  kind  in 
endless  successions,  would  never  equal  what  the  Absolute 
Spirit  must  ask  of  itself  for  its  own  dignity  and  glory.  The 
last  individuals  of  the  species  would  no  nearer  approach  to 
any  rational  consummation  than  the  first.  Reason  clearly 
sees  the  plant  to  be  as  truly  and  necessarily  a  means  to  an 
end  as  the  working  of  mechanical  forces,  and  with  the 
mightiest  and  oldest  oaks  and  cedars  before  it,  the  reason 
must  still  aifirm,  here  is  nothing  that  is  end  in  itself,  but 
the  end  is  still  beyond;  what  is  this  majestic,  long-lived 
plant  for?  A  higher  living  organism  that  may  use  the 
vegetable,  and  be  its  end,  must  be  created.  Xature  wants 
and  reason  demands  the  higher  animal  kingdom. 

Inasmuch  as  the  animal  is  to  use  the  vegetable,  and  its 


24:6        THE    ETERNAL    PRINCIPLES    OF   THE    UNIVERSE. 

assimilations  and  incorporations  are  to  be  of  no  mechanical 
and  chemical  elements  only,  but  wholly  of  such  elements 
vitally  combined,  it  is  clear  that  some  peculiar  character 
istics  must  distinguish  the  working  of  the  life-force  in  the 
animal  from  any  thing  we  have  found  in  the  vegetable. 
The  plants  to  be  drawn  in  and  assimilated,  cannot  be 
reached  by  any  rootlets  in  the  earth,  nor  any  branches 
and  leaves  in  the  air.  The  first  and  great  peculiarity  of 
the  animal  organism  must  be,  that  the  vital  force,  be  trans 
ferred  altogether  from  the  surface  to  the  inside.  The 
vegetable  pabulum  for  its  growth  and  preservation  must 
be  gathered  and  retained  by  the  animal,  and  the  work  of 
assimilating  and  incorporating  must  go  on  within  the 
organism,  and  hence  there  must  be  a  stomach  and  intes 
tinal  canal,  with  its  absorbing  and  imbibing  mouths  like 
the  radicles  of  the  plant  turned  inward,  and  through 
which  the  forces  to  be  combined  in  the  living  flesh  and 
bone  of  the  animal  body  may  be  taken  and  brought 
directly  to  the  points  of  the  living  and  working  forces. 
And  not  only  the  functions  of  the  roots,  but  those  of  the 
leaves  in  the  plant  also  must  now  become  internal,  for  the 
whole  work  of  oxygenation  or  imbibing  that  which  must 
be  used  in  a  gaseous  form,  makes  it  necessary  that  provi 
sion  be  made  for  this  through  all  the  circuit  where  the 
inward  assimilating  process  is  to  be  carried  on.  The  func 
tions  of  respiration  must  be  transferred  from  the  outside 
leaves  to  the  inside  lungs,  and  while  the  chylification  goes 
on  in  the  stomach,  and  the  prepared  matter  for  combina 
tion  in  the  living  animal  tissue  is  poured  into  the  blood, 
and  sent  on  through  the  whole  arterial  circulation,  so  the 
additional  preparation  of  the  oxygenating  process  must 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   ANIMAL    LIFE.  24:7 

mingle  in  the  same  current,  and  transfer  itself  to  the  same 
internal  laboratory.  The  life-force  in  the  animal  must  be 
housed  within,  and  build  up  over  itself  its  own  dwelling. 

But  still  farther,  for  the  carrying  on  of  these  functions, 
and  for  the  necessary  locomotion  in  gathering  and  mas 
ticating  its  food,  the  animal  life  must  possess  the  force  of 
muscular  irritability.  The  life-force  has  here  new  wants 
and  must  be  made  to  work  for  new  ends.  The  plant  may 
so  combine  the  antagonist  forces  in  their  polar  relations, 
and  so  temper  them  in  the  surroundings  of  the  diremptive 
forces,  that  external  action  upon  it  may  induce  a  contrac 
tion  and  withdrawing  from  the  fretting  violence,  or  an 
expansion  and  approach  to  the  genial  influence,  and  thus 
something  of  the  forms  of  muscular  action  may  be  given 
to  the  vegetable  fibre.  But  in  the  animal,  a  much  more 
unequivocal,  positive,  and  extensive  muscular  force  is  de 
manded.  The  life-force  must  so  arrange  in  combination 
the  polar  forces  in  the  molecules  which  it  assimilates  in  the 
fleshy  body  of  the  muscle,  that  by  its  own  impulse  it  can 
on  any  occasion  secure  that  every  living  corpuscle  in  the 
muscle  shall  react  upon  its  OWTI  centre  of  antagonism,  and 
thus  the  whole  muscle  contract  upon  itself  at  its  centre 
by  this  reaction  upon  itself  of  every  molecular  force  that 
constitutes  it ;  and  then  it  must  so  attach  the  muscle  to 
the  bony  structure  of  the  frame  that  it  shall  lift  and  move 
the  member  accordingly.  Here  is  a  much  higher  want, 
and  hence  a  much  more  complicated  adaptation  to  an  end 
than  any  thing  for  which  the  vegetable  kingdom  can  be 
made  to  legislate. 

With  such  adaptations,  it  must  immediately  follow, 
that  from  the  irritation  of  the  contents  themselves,  as  in 


248       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

the  case  of  the  food  in  the  stomach,  the  air  in  the  lungs, 
©r  the  blood  in  the  heart,  the  contraction  of  the  muscles 
shall  spontaneously  take  place,  and  the  want  be  satisfied. 
The  forces  used  and  combined  by  the  life-force,  are 
abundantly  sufficient  in  their  varieties  and  degrees,  to 
secure  any  possible  end  of  muscular  contraction,  and  the 
Absolute  reason  has  but  to  endow  and  adapt  the  life-force 
in  its  wants,  and  supply  for  it  the  congenial  materials  in 
the  mechanical  forces,  and  its  own  spontaneous  working 
will  determine  the  issue.  The  muscle  will  differ  from  any 
other  bodily  tissue,  and  be  susceptible  to  magnetic  and 
electric  forces  from  its  own  polar  arrangement  of  mole 
cules,  unlike  any  other  forms  of  matter. 

No  animal  muscle  is  self-active.  It  must  receive  the 
action  that  irritates  it,  and  thus  induces  contraction  in  it, 
from  some  foreign  force.  Its  irritation  is  not  at  all  sensa 
tion,  but  a  contraction  from  some  outside  invasion,  and 
has  nothing  that  yet  awakes  in  any  sense,  much  less  any 
will.  Sense  and  will  may  use  muscular  irritation  and  con 
traction,  but  the  life-force  also  uses  it  in  blind  spontaneity, 
before  it  has  itself  been  elevated  to  any  of  the  prerogatives 
of  a  sentient  and  voluntary  existence.  Some  forms  of  ani 
mal  life  will  rise  above  the  vegetable  only  in  the  transfer 
of  the  assimilative  force  from  the  surface  to  the  inside, 
having  merely  an  alimentary  canal  and  a  contractile  capa 
bility  through  the  whole  body,  while  in  other  rising  forms 
of  animated  existence  we  approach  the  completed  types 
of  organic  structure  in  the  possession  of  all  the  digestive 
and  respiratory  functions,  the  perfection  of  arterial  circu 
lation  and  free  locomotion  in  the  use  of  both  the  muscles 
of  involuntary  and  voluntary  action.  From  the  crawling 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   ANIMAL   LIFE.  249 

earth-worm  to  the  solid  tread  of  those  animals  whose 
organism  includes  the  whole  frame  of  spinal,  vertebral, 
crural,  and  brachial  attachments,  we  have  all  degrees  of 
muscular  fulness,  and  yet  so  far  as  muscular  only,  they 
have  all  but  the  same  contractile  irritability  from  an  out 
side  agency. 

There  must  still  be  a  higher  form  of  vital  action,  or 
the  animal  want  cannot  be  satisfied  and  its  ends  attained. 
Merely  that  the  content  itself  in  a  muscular  receptivity 
should  irritate  and  induce  contraction  in  the  muscle  will 
not  be  enough;  the  necessity  must  often  occur  that  the 
animal  itself  secure  the  presence  of  the  content,  especially 
the  aliment  for  the  stomach,  and  thus  the  occasion  for 
muscular  motion  be  furnished  before  the  irritating  content 
comes,  even  in  order  that  it  may  be  attained,  and  to  this 
end  there  must  be  the  nervous  sensibility. 

The  molecules  in  the  muscle  contract  by  occasion  of 
some  foreign  action  upon  them;  the  life-force  having  so 
combined  and  attached  them,  that  their  contraction  and 
motion  are  the  result  of  direct  mechanical  forces  already 
within  them ;  but  now  the  life-force  must  go  further  and 
combine  for  itself  a  material  organ  that  can  act,  not  merely 
when  acted  upon,  but  which  can  upon  occasion  being 
given  act  directly  back  upon  itself,  and  such  material 
organ  will  be  a  nerve  of  sensation.  The  vital  force  in  the 
nerve  makes  the  molecules  of  the  nerve  to  act  back  upon 
its  own  agency,  and  in  this  reception  of  action  from  its 
own  action,  an  impression  on  itself  from  its  own  movement, 
there  comes  a  self-feeling  or  awakened  sensation,  which  at 
once  distinguishes  the  animal  from  all  forms  of  vegetable 
life.  The  existence  of  a  brain  and  connected  system  of 


250       THE   ETEIiNAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE    UNIVERSE. 

nerves,  gives  to  the  life-force  a  self-centre  from  whence  it 
can  act  and  receive  the  action,  and  in  this  affecting  or  im 
pressing  itself  in  its  own  organism,  there  is  self-reciprocity, 
and  thus  sentient  life. 

In  a  bodily  organism  so  endowed,  any  want  in  the 
system  awakens  some  appropriate  nerve  and  makes  itself 
to  be  known  as  an  appetite,  and  every  supply  of  the  want 
also  makes  itself  to  be  felt  as  animal  enjoyment.  This 
nervous  sensation  is  itself  an  occasion  of  irritation  to  the 
muscle,  and  thus  the  life-force  awakened  to  feeling  in  an 
appetite,  at  once  impels  the  contracting  muscle,  and  loco 
motion  and  self-supply  succeeds.  Not  only  will  the 
appetite  thus  direct  the  muscle  in  locomotion,  that  it  may 
bring  the  body  to  the  place  of  its  desired  object,  but  the 
successive  wants  direct  to  all  the  successive  motions, 
which  work  out  their  respective  ends.  In  hunger,  the 
food  is  not  only  attained,  but  all  the  muscles  necessary  for 
grasping,  masticating,  and  swallowing,  are  set  in  motion 
by  the  feeling.  The  nervous  system  is  the  source  of  all 
the  animal  susceptibility. 

When  this  reaction  of  the  organism  upon  itself  is  slight, 
or  when  that  organism  is  less  intensely  vitalized,  there  can 
not  be  made  a  distinction  of  both  the  action  and  reagency, 
and  the  result  must  be  a  mere  blind  sensation  only.  The 
action  will  have  more  in  it  than  mere  muscular  irritability, 
for  it  truly  reacts  upon  its  own  organism,  but  yet  as  undis 
criminated  action  and  reaction  there  can  be  only  an  in 
stinct,  prompting  and  directing  motion  merely  through  the 
impulses  of  the  sensation  itself.  But  when  this  action  and 
reaction  is  strong  and  in  an  intensely  vitalized  organ,  and 
there  is  thus  a  capacity  to  distinctly  apprehend  the  nervous 


THE    PRINCIPLE    OF    ANIMAL    LIFE.  251 

reaction,  and  also  that  this  reagency  is  itself  an  induced 
result,  there  must  be  given  a  conscious  sensation,  a  recog 
nized  feeling,  and  in  this  the  animal  sentient  life  at  once 
begins.  Animal  desire,  and  not  mere  instinct,  must  then 
govern  the  movement,  and  the  locomotion  is  guided  by  the 
sense  to  the  attainment  of  the  objects  which  minister  to  the 
gratification  of  the  desire. 

In  this  there  can  as  yet  be  given  nothing  beyond  self- 
feeling;  distinct  sensation,  but  not  self-knowledge.  The 
agency  and  reagency  of  the  organism  upon  itself  is  distin 
guished,  and  the  feeling  is  a  conscious  desire ;  but  the  self 
is  not  recognized,  and  thus  the  animal  cannot  attain  to  self- 
consciousness. 

When  all  these  distinguishable  alimentary,  respiratory, 
muscular  and  nervous  organisms  have  been  superinduced 
upon  the  one  life-force,  and  this  permeates  the  whole  struc 
ture  which  by  its  inhaustive  and  assimilating  power  it  has 
built  about  itself,  this  structure  of  many  parts  must  thus  be 
made  one  organic  whole,  and  the  separate  stomach  and 
lungs,  the  irritable  muscle  and  the  sentient  nerve,  all  have 
their  membership  in  and  identification  with  the  one  body. 
The  vegetative  force  is  turned  inward  in  the  stomach  and 
lungs  of  the  animal,  and  is  thenceforth  no  longer  merely 
vegetative.  The  superinduced  force  of  irritability  as  an 
action  and  reaction  of  content  and  organ  must  be  given 
for  the  uses  and  ends  of  this  transferred  inward  vegetative 
process,  that  thereby  there  may  be  secured  the  presence  of 
the  constitutive  matter,  or  pabulum,  for  the  assimilating 
activity.  Here  will  be  found  the  lower  forms  of  animal 
existence.  The  coral  animalcula  is  scarcely  other  than  a 
muscular  organism  vitalized,  acting  through  its  whole 


252        THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

structure  by  inhaustion  and  irritation;  assimilating  and 
incorporating,  and  then  absorbing  and  secreting,  those  ex- 
crementitious  fabrications,  that  ultimately  make  the  ex 
tended  and  solid  islands  of  the  tropical  seas.  Rising  higher 
in  animal  existence,  as  the  vegetable  life  is  pushed  further 
inward,  we  must  have  the  nervous  system  for  the  use  of 
the  augmented  life-force,  and  here  we  attain  the  compara 
tively  elevated  form  of  organic  existence  in  a  locomotive, 
masticating,  sentient  and  percipient  animal.  This  animal 
holds  all  the  orders  of  inferior  existence  within  itself  and 
subject  to  its  own  uses.  Neither  the  material  nor  the 
vegetative  forces  have  been  lost  in  the  higher  superinduc- 
tions  upon  them,  but  we  shall  find  them  still  unchanged 
except  as  made  subservient  to  the  higher  activity.  All 
become  one  in  the  one  organized  system,  and  these  are 
successively  built  up  each  by  their  own  forces,  as  creation 
advances  and  matures.  The  antagonist  and  diremptive 
forces  make  the  material  world,  and  the  assimilative  force 
makes  the  vital  world,  and  the  vital  in  the  material  builds 
up  its  own  body  superficially  as  the  plant,  and  through  the 
media  of  muscular  and  nervous  instrumentalities,  also 
builds  up  a  body  about  itself  from  the  inside  as  the  animal. 
But  highly  as  the  existence  has  become  elevated  in  the 
animal,  and  the  idea  of  created  being  has  been  here  ad 
vanced,  still  all  is  within  nature,  and  bound  in  the  con 
ditioned  and  necessitated  births  and  growths  determined 
for  them  in  their  primal  constitution. 

25.  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  HUMAN  LIFE. — All  creation  is  as 
yet  means  to  ends,  and  the  attainment  is  not  yet  made  of 
an  end  that  can  be  self-satisfactory  and  thus  ultimate.  The 
antagonist  and  diremptive  forces  work  on  and  never  finish ; 


THE   PRINCIPLE   OF   HUMAN    LIFE.  253 

the  life-force  builds  up  the  plant,  and  pushes  out  perpetual 
buds  in  self-reduplication,  and  throws  off  its  seed  after  its 
kind  in  the  perpetuation  of  its  species,  but  at  no  point  does 
the  plant  turn  back  upon  itself  and  come  to  any  self-finding ; 
and  then  the  animal  inwardly  digests  and  respires,  has  loco 
motion  and  sensation,  and  a  perpetual  circulation  of  life 
and  feeling  about  a  centre,  but  in  all  this  going  out  from 
and  coming  back  to  a  centre,  there  is  no  capability  to  re 
main  and  retain  itself  at  the  centre.  So  soon  as  there  is  a 
self-finding  there  is  also  a  self-losing,  and  thus  only  a  suc 
cessive  self-feeling  with  no  self-possession.  The  most  in 
tense  animal  sensation  is  perpetually  transitional,  and  never 
comes  to  any  abiding  self-consciousness.  All  is  thus  nature ; 
conditioned  succession ;  determined  but  interminable  births 
and  deaths ;  and  as  yet  nowhere  the  capability  to  rest  in 
any  consummation. 

With  this  reason  cannot  be  satisfied.  The  Absolute 
Spirit  cannot  rejoice  in  his  own  work  except  as  it  is  made 
at  last  complete  in  itself,  and  possessing  that  which  has  an 
intrinsic  excellency  that  may  properly  use  and  exhaust  for 
itself  all  this  universe  of  created  means,  and  be  an  end  in 
which  they  are  swallowed  up.  Without  such  a  crown  on 
nature,  her  last  birth  and  growth  is  wholly  meaningless,  and 
there  has  been  nothing  to  work /row,  and  nothing  to  wrork 
/or,  and  therefore  nothing  worthy  of  the  Great  Architect 
to  work  out. 

Superinduced  upon  this  animal  life,  there  must  be  the 
force  of  reason,  which  can  read  principles  and  law  in  itself 
and  control  all  animal  feeling  by  them,  and  hold  all  of  na 
ture  that  is  in  him  freely  and  joyfully  subject  to  them. 
Such  a  union  of  the  animal  and  the  rational  will  be  the  hu- 


254:       THE   ETERNAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

man  ;  not  thing,  but  person ;  in  nature,  and  yet  supernatu 
ral.  While  he  can  use  all  nature's  means  for  his  ends,  he 
can  also  know  and  commune  with  the  God  who  reveals 
himself  in  nature,  as  partaking  himself  of  his  likeness.  God 
may  not  only  express  himself  in  him  as  in  all  his  works,  but 
may  reveal  himself  to  him  in  ways  which  none  of  his  created 
works  can  express,  and  bring  him  thus  intelligently  and 
eternally  in  adoring  communion. 

Nature  in  the  individual  has  ends  for  which  it  works  in 
the  completion  and  preservation  of  the  individual;  and 
even  ends  beyond  the  individual  in  the  perpetuation  and 
melioration  of  the  kind,  and  which  reason  would  itself  dic 
tate,  and  thus  nature  and  reason  are  in  these  ends  at  one, 
and  the  whole  humanity  may  go  out  spontaneously  to  gain 
them.  But  the  ends  of  the  reason  reach  far  beyond  the 
point  to  which  the  animal  may  follow  in  individual  happi 
ness  and  the  well-feeling  of  the  race,  even  to  the  moral  and 
immortal  well-being  in  constant  self-approbation  and  divine 
approval. 

Should  the  rational  bow  in  bondage  to  nature  as  it  cau, 
and  take  the  end  of  the  animal  as  its  chief  good,  it  then 
becomes  merely  a  servant  to  nature ;  a  bond-slave  to  the 
flesh;  but  cannot  thus  become  nature,  and  put  off  its 
spiritual  prerogatives  and  personal  responsibilities.  The 
conscious  obligation  must  still  press,  that  this  bondage 
cease,  and  the  body  be  at  once  brought  in  subjection,  and 
nature  put  to  serve  the  spirit,  and  not  that  the  spirit  may 
put  itself  for  one  hour  to  yield  its  end  to  the  lusts  of  the 
flesh. 

This  superinduction  of  the  rational  must  perfect  and 
consummate  the  animal.  The  intellectual  life  through  the 


THE    PRINCIPLE    OF    HUMAN   LIFE.  255 

sense  and  the  understanding  must  be  thereby  lifted  above 
any  illumination  which  mere  animality  can  reach.  The 
bodily  organization  must  also  find  in  this  its  perfection. 
All  along  in  the  plant,  the  most  perfect  of  its  kind  is  when 
the  interpenetrating  life  is  the  most  intense  and  unhindered. 
The  animal  body  is  most  complete  when  all  the  forces  of 
vital  assimilation,  muscular  irritation,  and  nervous  sensa 
tion,  are  the  most  freely  active.  The  life-force  is  the  most 
energetic  in  the  germ  that  contains  the  rudiments  of  the 
most  complicated  organization,  and  the  superinduction  of 
higher  forces  must  ever  elevate  the  life  in  the  corporeity  it 
inhabits.  We  must,  therefore,  find  all  forms  in  nature  be 
low  ripening  upwards  toward  man.  In  him  must  be  the 
consummation  of  all  corporeal  organism.  The  archetype 
after  which  nature  has  been  working  comes  out  at  last  in 
the  human  form,  and  all  lower  bodies  must  possess  their 
rudiments  in  nascent  progression  till  they  culminate  in  the 
erect  stature  and  expressive  countenance  of  man.  He 
holds  dominion  over  all  the  material,  vegetable,  and  animal 
creation. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE  NECESSARY  LAWS  IN  THE  ACTUAL  FACTS  OF  THE 
UNIVERSE. 

THE  universe  in  its  eternal  principles  gives  the  creation 
in  Idea,  and  in  this  we  know  what  is  possible;  but  an 
insight  of  the  universe  in  its  principles  does  not  warrant 
the  affirmation  that  what  is  so  clearly  possible  to  be,  actual 
ly  is.  A  universe  so  may  be ;  yea,  if  a  universe  of  working 
central  forces  be  brought  into  existence,  so  it  must  be ;  but 
that  the  universe  shall  so  be  in  actual  fact,  there  is  demand 
ed  the  exertion  of  creative  Omnipotence.  The  created 
facts  being  given,  the  reason  may  in  them  detect  the  laws 
by  which  they  are  governed,  and  when  the  insight  of  rea 
son  also  determines  that  these  very  laws  in  the  facts  are 
such  as  the  eternal  principles  made  necessary,  we  have  then 
a  true  and  valid  science  of  the  universe,  and  may  safely 
call  the  result  of  our  work  a  Rational  Cosmology.  This 
attainment  of  the  laws  in  the  facts,  and  their  determination 
as  necessary  from  the  foregoing  principles,  is  the  business 
of  this  chapter,  and  in  the  accomplishment  of  which  our 
whole  work  is  completed. 

It  should  be  distinctly  seen  that  the  Creator  himself 
cannot  at  all  be  subject  to  science  according  to  such  a  pro- 


DEITY   NOT   SUBJECTED   TO    SCIENCE. 

cess.  He  is  the  absolute  Author  of  all  that  h 
made  according  to  eternal  principles,  and  as  unmade  "him- 
self,  we  are  not  to  search  back  of  him  for  the  principles 
which  determine  his  possible  being,  and  then  search  within 
him  for  the  laws  in  the  facts  which  such  prior  principles 
made  to  be  necessary.  Enough  that  in  creation  we  find 
unequivocal  certainty  of  facts  that  originated  out  of  nature, 
and  not  as  productions  from  something  already  in  nature, 
and  that  the  laws  of  all  nature  confirm  the  origination  of 
the  primal  and  constitutive  forces  of  the  universe  to  have 
been  from  a  Rational  Spirit,  and  then  we  have  the  demon 
stration  both  that  a  personal  God  is,  and  in  many  positive 
particulars  what  this  God  is;  but  we  do  not  need  to  at 
tempt  the  circumscription  of  him  by  a  science,  that  in  com 
prehending  the  facts  in  their  principles  shall  enable  us  to 
say  how  God  is.  God  is  object  for  the  insight  of  the  reason, 
and  not  at  all  object  for  the  judgments  of  the  connecting 
understanding.  The  doom  is  on  this  latter  faculty  that  its 
deepest  substance  must  stih1  stand  in  some  lower  substra 
tum,  and  its  highest  cause  must  be  the  product  of  some 
previous  causation;  and  from  the  law  of  its  being  and 
working  this  faculty  must  be  shut  up  within  nature,  and 
can  by  no  possibility  take  the  leap  outwards  to  a  super- 
natural  and  absolute  Deity.  That  a  God  is,  and  what  a 
God  is,  is  enough  for  rational  faith  and  practical  religion ; 
but  how  God  is  will  never  be  comprehensible  within  the  de 
ductions  of  a  discursive  philosophy. 

The  universe  is  alone  the  province  and  object  for  sci 
ence.  That  is  wholly  fact ;  a  thing  made ;  and  in  all  its 
particular  facts  there  are  laws  which  are  necessary  from 
the  eternal  principles  which  determined  them;  and  thus 


258  THE   NECESSABY   LAWS   OF   THE   UNIVEESE. 

here  only  need  we  look  for  laws  in  the  facts  in  what  re 
mains  of  our  work,  just  as  here  only  have  we  attained 
principles  prior  to  the  facts  in  that  part  of  our  work  which 
has  been  already  accomplished. 

Some  of  the  first  sections  of  the  last  chapter  attain  to 
principles  of  so  general  a  bearing,  that  we  do  not  need  to 
refer  to  them  in  this  chapter,  and  attempt  to  find  any  par 
ticular  laws  in  the  facts  that  have  been  determined  by 
them.  They  have  their  application  more  or  less  to  ah1 
facts,  and  give  law  to  all  facts,  and  will  thus  be  suificiently 
recognized  in  the  recognition  of  the  universe  itself.  Such 
is  the  case  with  the  general  principle  of  the  space-filling 
antagonist  force ;  the  determination  of  space  and  time ;  the 
impression  of  matter  upon  the  senses ;  that  creation  must 
be  a  nature ;  and  the  universal  principles  of  motion.  It  is 
not  until  we  come  to  the  8th  section,  that  we  need  to  take 
up  the  principles,  item  by  item,  and  see  how  exactly  they 
have  determined  the  laws  which  we  may  find  everywhere 
in  the  corresponding  facts  of  the  universal  cosmos,  as  the 
careful  observation  of  philosophical  experiment  gives  them 
to  us. 

1.  THE  LAW  OP  MATERIAL  SPHERICITY. — The  principle 
given  in  this  section  (Ch.  II.  8)  is,  that  all  free  matter,  fluid 
or  gaseous,  must  tend  towards  a  globular  form.  The 
space-filling  forces,  generated  from  a  constant  antagonist 
action,  must  take  on  this  globular  form,  from  the  necessary 
working  of  the  counter  vail  ing  activities  at  the  centre. 
The  immutable  laws  of  motion  secure  that,  as  new  forces 
are  generated  by  each  activity  pushing  the  other  back  upon 
itself,  so  these  generated  forces  must  every  way  expand 
from  the  generating  point,  and  successively,  layer  after 


LAW   OF   MATERIAL    SPHERICITY.  259 

layer,  ensphere  themselves  about  it.  The  Absolute  Cre 
ator  could  make  matter  take  on  other  forms,  for  he  could 
combine  single  activities  in  other  numbers  and  directions 
of  working,  and  thus  induce  other  forms  of  static  equi 
librium  and  thereby  give  other  permanent  shapes  to  mat 
ter  ;  but  if  a  direct  antagonism  be  taken  as  the  generating 
force  in  creation,  then  the  free  matter,  so  fast  as  created, 
must  range  itself  equably  about  this  generating  source  and 
become  a  sphere.  The  origination  of  space-filling  forces  in 
that  manner  must  fill  space  in  a  growing  sphere.  This 
matter,  or  space-filling  force,  must  preserve  its  direct  an 
tagonisms  so  long  as  its  existence  remains.  Other  forces 
may  be  superinduced  and  widely  vary  its  consistency  and 
fluidity,  but  the  primitive  ethereal  matter  must  ever  tend 
towards  a  globular  arrangement  of  parts,  and  wherever 
matter  shall  be  left  free  in  its  movements  before  its  own 
constituent  forces,  it  must  ever  be  found  with  this  inherent 
law  of  sphericity.  The  universal  working  of  the  component 
molecules,  in  their  several  antagonisms,  must  give  equally 
balanced  centrifugal  and  centripetal  tendencies  to  every 
separate  position  in  the  space  filled.  And  now  this  princi 
ple  in  idea  is  everywhere  the  law  in  fact. 

We  have  nothing  to  do  with  solid  matter  in  its  rigid 
state,  inasmuch  as  its  component  molecules  are  not  free  to 
take  their  positions  according  to  their  concentric  tenden 
cies.  What  the  tendency  in  all  solids  is,  and  what  the  re 
sult  would  be  if  free  to  conform  to  this  tendency,  is  mani 
fest  from  the  fact  that  every  detached  portion  of  matter 
has  its  own  central  balancing  point.  Angular  as  may  be 
its  surface,  there  is  always  a  plane  that  equally  divides  the 
intensity  of  its  forces,  always  an  axis  that  equalizes  its 


260  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

polarity,  and  always  a  centre  that  may  sustain  all  its  outly 
ing  portions.  Were  the  mass  a  free  fluid,  this  fact  of  self- 
balanced  parts  evinces  that  this  plane  would  at  once 
become  the  division  between  two  hemispheres,  this  axis  a 
bisection  of  that  circular  plane,  and  this  centre  the  point 
of  equal  radiation  every  way  to  the  circumference. 

But  take  any  fluid  matter,  and  give  the  occasion  for  its 
own  free  movement  within  itself,  and  its  law  of  sphericity 
will  universally  appear.  The  rain  will  fall  in  spherical 
drops  until  flattened  or  spattered  by  meeting  a  resisting 
surface.  The  dew-drop  will  stand  ensphered  on  the  leaf, 
and  only  flattened  on  the  side  of  its  support  to  just  the 
equilibrium  of  inherent  consistency  and  specific  gravity. 
The  drop  of  quicksilver,  though  of  much  greater  specific 
gravity  than  water,  yet  from  its  excess  of  inherent  consist 
ency  will  not  permit  that  its  weight  should  flatten  it  on  its 
support  so  much,  but  it  stands  up  in  relief  from  its  basis 
almost  as  perfect  a  globe  as  if  freely  suspended  by  its 
centre.  The  central  antagonism  works  as  the  same  law  in 
the  water  and  the  mercury,  and  perfectly  enspheres  both, 
but  the  less  consistency  of  parts  in  the  water  gives  occasion 
to  the  weight  to  make  greater  interference  with  the  law 
than  in  the  mercury.  All  fluids  are  flattened  and  not 
spherical,  only  because  their  masses  make  the  aggregate 
gravity  to  overwork  any  common  central  antagonism,  and 
they  thus  spread  their  parts  on  the  beds  that  sustain  them. 
The  proper  radius  would  always  secure  the  sphericity  of 
the  fluid. 

Vapors,  in  their  most  volatile  state,  have  the  same  law 
of  sphericity  as  fluids.  If  the  vapor  be  denser  than  the 
atmosphere  that  surrounds  it,  then  will  its  parts  come 


LAW   OF   MATEEIAL    SPHEEICITY.  261 

under  the  law,  and  ensphere  themselves  about  a  central 
antagonism,  subject  to  all  the  disturbing  forces  in  the  agi 
tation  of  the  surrounding  atmosphere,  and  the  flattening 
from  the  specific  gravity  of  the  mass  as  it  compresses  itself 
on  the  substance  that  supports  it.  If  the  vapor  be  lighter 
than  the  atmosphere  in  which  it  floats,  then  must  it  be  sub 
ject  to  the  forces  in  the  atmosphere,  and  the  excess  of  force 
without  must  overbear  its  antagonist  working  within,  and 
it  can  only  take  the  shapes  the  outward  forces  impose  upon 
it.  But  if  that  volatile  vapor  alone  occupied  its  own  space, 
it  would  as  truly  evince  its  law  of  sphericity  as  does  the 
atmosphere  itself,  or  as  does  the  primitive  ether  to  which 
the  atmosphere  is  only  a  much  denser  vapor.  The  mole 
cules  of  vapor  no  further  fly  apart  by  what  is  termed 
repulsion,  than  is  demanded  from  the  force  of  the  central 
working,  which  must  expel  from  a  given  centre  to  the 
point  which  exactly  balances  the  reaction  of  that  which 
urges  towards  the  centre.  The  vapor  is  only  a  lighter 
fluid,  and  all  fluids  here  have  the  same  determined  law. 
The  shot,  which  has  fallen  two  hundred  feet  and  cooled  to 
a  solid  in  its  descent,  was  rounded  to  a  ball  in  the  first  por 
tion  of  its  passage  by  this  inherent  law  of  its  sphericity  from 
its  own  constitutive  forces.  Not  at  all  because  pressed 
from  the  outside  has  this  form  been  induced,  for  this  out 
side  pressure  has  not  been  on  all  sides  equal;  the  shot 
would  have  been  the  same  perfect  ball  if  it  had  fallen 
through  a  vacuum,  and  provided  it  could  thus  have  parted 
with  its  heat,  it  would  also  have  been  the  same  solid.  The 
law  of  ensphering  is  from  within,  even  from  the  working 
of  its  own  constitutive  forces,  and  not  that  any  other  mat 
ter  has  been  doing  the  forming  work. 


262  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS   OF   THE   UNIVEESE. 

There  may  be  globes  which  have  been  chipped  off  from 
the  outside  when  already  solid,  or  that  may  have  been 
moulded  by  an  outside  pressure,  and  such  will  ordinarily 
carry  with  them  the  traces  of  the  external  violence ;  but 
where  a  solid  is  found  as  a  globe  in  a  natural  state,  it  is  safe 
to  conclude  that  when  formed  it  was  a  fluid,  and  allowed 
its  central  force  to  permeate  its  whole  structure,  and  ar 
range  its  particles  according  to  the  inner  law  of  sphericity. 
So  the  worlds  of  our  solar  system  were  formed,  and  though 
now  mostly  they  have  become  solid  bodies,  yet  the  fact 
of  their  globular  forms  carries  conclusive  evidence  that 
they  took  on  their  shapes  when  fused,  and  free  to  move 
according  to  the  tendencies  of  their  central  forces. 

It  is  more  surprising  to  find  the  facts  of  what  is  called 
capillary  attraction  unexpectedly  leaping  within  the  con 
trol  of  this  law  of  fluid  sphericity.  If  a  glass  tube  of  small 
diameter  be  plunged  at  one  end  perpendicularly  in  water, 
the  water  in  the  tube  will  rise  considerably  above  the  sur 
face  of  the  water  on  the  outside.  To  say  that  the  inner 
surface  of  the  tube  attracts  the  fluid,  is  only  to  cover  the 
mystery  under  a  word,  and  explains  nothing.  The  atmo 
spheric  pressure  will  make  the  water  in  the  tube  rise  to 
the  height  of  the  outer  surface,  but  such  force  can  do  no 
more.  The  superficial  stratum  within  the  tube  is  acted 
upon,  through  all  its  molecules,  by  the  constitutive  antag 
onisms  which  tend  to  ensphere  themselves  about  the  cen 
tral  force.  The  inner  surface  of  the  tube  is  as  a  surrounding 
wall,  restraining  this  ensphering  action,  and  thus  neces 
sarily  forcing  the  fluid  further  up,  and  making  what  would 
have  been  a  sphere  to  be  compressed  within  a  smaller 
diameter  into  a  cylinder.  The  fluid  must  rise,  until  what 


LAW   OF   MATERIAL   SPHERICITY.  263 

from  the  central  force  would  have  been  a  sphere  must  now 
find  its  balance  in  the  longer  axis  of  the  cylinder,  and  at 
that  point  the  water  must  stand.  Hence  the  smaller  the 
tube  the  higher  the  water  must  rise,  for  the  central  pres 
sure  that  would  have  ensphered,  must  find  its  balance  in  a 
longer  axis  of  the  smaller  cylinder. 

If  two  plates  of  glass  be  joined  in  an  acute  angle  at 
one  edge,  and  open  at  the  other,  and  these  so  plunged 
perpendicularly  in  water  that  it  may  rise  between  the 
plates,  we  shall  have  the  water  within  rising  above  the 
surface  of  that  without,  and  at  an  elevation  proportioned 
to  the  nearness  of  the  plates  to  each  other.  At  the 
angle  it  will  be  of  the  greatest  elevation,  and  regularly 
diminish  in  height  to  the  outer  extremity,  making  the 
curve  to  be  that  of  a  parabola.  And  here  we  have  pre 
cisely  the  same  law,  for  the  central  force  which  would 
ensphere  the  included  water  is  now  resisted  by  the  glass 
walls,  and  the  water,  which  would  have  gone  out  all  ways 
from  such  force,  must  now  rise  between  the  glass  plates, 
and  the  higher  in  proportion  to  their  contiguity.  These 
plates  are  as  the  inner  surface  of  the  tube,  and  the  antago 
nist  working  within  gives  the  same  law  of  rising  in  height, 
proportioned  to  the  diameter  of  the  space  within  which 
the  fluid  is  pressed;  and  inasmuch  as  the  pressure  does 
not  surround  the  fluid  as  a  tube,  but  only  partially  incloses 
it  as  by  two  sides  of  a  triangle,  so  the  height  can  at  no 
place  be  but  to  one-half  the  amount  between  the  plates 
that  the  same  diameters  would  have  given  in  a  complete 
cylinder.  The  facts  and  the  determination  of  the  prin 
ciple  perfectly  correspond. 

If  the  tube  be  a  long  slender  cone,  and  a  small  portion 


264:  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

of  water  be  introduced  at  the  base,  then  what  would  by 
the  central  force  have  been  ensphered  in  a  drop,  must  now 
take  on  the  form  to  which  the  sides  of  the  tube  compress 
it ;  and  as  this  is  perpetually  diminishing  upwards,  the  cen 
tral  working  must  force  the  fluid  in  that  direction,  and 
make  the  portion  of  water  inserted  at  the  bottom  move 
progressively  to  the  top  of  the  tube,  as  the  facts  dis 
close. 

If  the  fluid  be  in  a  large  glass  vessel,  so  that  only  the 
contiguous  surface  resists  the  ensphering  force,  then  we 
shall  have  the  common  fact  of  the  surface  of  the  fluid  made 
somewhat  elevated  in  contact  with  the  vessel,  and  curving 
off  concavely  at  the  departure  from  it.  If  this  fluid  be 
of  so  great  consistency  that  the  ensphering  force  cannot 
drive  it  up  against  the  side  of  the  glass  vessel,  then  instead 
of  rising  against,  it  must  tend  to  ensphere  itself  back  from 
the  vessel,  and  we  shall  have  the  fact  as  in  mercury. 
When  there  is  the  absorbing  of  water  as  in  a  sponge,  or  a 
loose  string  or  cloth,  the  contiguous  threads  or  filaments 
are  as  the  sides  of  the  tube,  and  the  ensphering  force 
pushes  up  the  fluid  between  them,  and  as  there  are  con 
stant  cross  filaments  so  the  fluid  is  perpetually  supported, 
and  giving  occasion  for  continual  progress  through  the 
absorbent. 

2.  THE  LAW  OF  GRAVITY. — The  force  engendered  by 
the  primal  antagonism,  must  not  only  ensphere  all  the 
successive  points  of  force  engendered,  but  must  so  ensphere 
them  that  each  point  out  from  the  centre  must  react  back 
upon  the  centre  in  exact  static  equilibrium.  The  central 
repulsion  is  every  way  equal  through  the  sphere,  and 
directly  as  the  intensity  of  the  forces,  which  is  the  quantity 


THE   LAW    OF   GRAVITY.  265 

of  matter,  and  inversely  as  the  cubes  of  the  radii,  which 
is  the  distance.  The  reaction,  which  is  the  attraction  of 
any  point  in  the  sphere,  is  in  the  direct  line  of  the  radius 
towards  the  centre  from  that  point,  and  as  the  intensity  or 
quantity  of  matter  directly,  and  as  the  square  of  tho  radius 
or  distance  inversely.  Each  point  in  the  sphere  is  thus 
determined  in  the  density  of  its  matter,  or  the  intensity 
of  the  force  which  fills  it,  by  the  intensity  of  the  central 
antagonism,  and  this  also  determines  the  magnitude  of  the 
sphere.  This  reaction,  or  attraction,  of  each  point  towards 
the  centre  is  the  result  of  the  compounding  of  the  sphere- 
forming  agency,  which  from  the  centre  so  pushes  out 
every  point  of  force  in  reciprocal  action  with  every  other 
point,  that  each  is  both  pressed,  and  in  return  presses 
every  way.  All  the  particles  of  the  sphere,  therefore, 
both  repel  and  attract  every  other  particle,  and  in  the 
above  ratios  for  the  repulsion  and  attraction. 

This  must  be  so  in  all  parts  relatively  to  the  universal 
sphere,  in  all  parts  of  each  particular  globe  relatively  to 
its  own  sphere,  and  of  all  particular  spheres  relatively  to 
each  other.  All  matter  in  every  way  relatively  to  all 
other  matter  must,  therefore,  gravitate  toward  all  other 
matter,  directly  as  the  quantity  and  inversely  as  the  square 
of  the  distance. 

Kow,  that  the  law  in  the  facts  accords  with  this  neces 
sary  principle  in  the  reason's  idea,  needs  no  otherwise  to 
be  noticed  here  than  by  a  general  reference  to  physical 
science.  Long,  exact,  and  extended  observation  and  ex 
periment  have  found  the  facts  to  be  thus,  and  with  not  an 
apparent  exception,  and  all  inductive  philosophy  rests  upon 
it.  Whether  in  our  world  or  others,  so  far  as  facts  can  be 


266  THE   NECESSAKY   LAWS   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

gained,  the  facts  come  within  the  control  of  this  law,  and 
this  has  become  so  universally  admitted  that  any  detail 
would  be  not  only  superfluous  but  intolerable.  The  only 
thing  important  is  to  correct  the  error  and  remove  the 
absurdity  of  the  common  notion  of  gravity,  as  itself  a  fact 
assumed  from  this  apparent  concurrence  of  all  facts.  All 
observed  facts  of  matter  have  resolved  themselves  into  or 
rather  bound  themselves  by,  and  comprehended  themselves 
within,  this  higher  fact,  that  all  matter  tends  to  all  other 
matter  in  the  above  gravitating  ratios. 

This  fact  has  been  assumed  as  an  ultimate  fact  from  all 
observed  facts,  but  no  way  opens  to  the  attainment  of  any 
point  of  observation  that  may  make  this  ultimate  fact  a 
matter  of  experience.  It  can,  therefore,  never  be  experi 
mentally  verified  nor  expounded.  The  conception  of  it  can 
be  the  product  of  the  imagination  alone,  and  that  it  may 
not  be  mere  fancy,  but  a  logical  product  of  the  discursive 
understanding,  the  conception  is  thought  out  from  the 
facts  observed  in  the  following  process.  If  there  were  no 
other  forces  acting  upon  matter  than  attraction,  or  the 
tendency  to  come  together,  then  it  follows  that  all  matter 
must  have  long  since  become  consolidated.  Such,  how 
ever,  is  not  the  observed  fact,  but  worlds  stand  apart  from 
each  other  with  no  observed  matter  to  separate  them. 
They  are  found  in  distinguished  cases  to  revolve  one  about 
another,  and  many  substances  in  our  world  repel  other 
substances ;  there  is  then  another  force  the  opposite  of 
attraction,  and  by  compounding  the  movements  induced 
by  such  forces,  the  imagination  forms  the  conception  how 
worlds  may  be  kept  separate,  and  yet  in  general  connec 
tion.  These  opposite  forces  are  then  deemed  to  be  so 


THE   LAW    OF   GRAVITY.  2 67 

arranged  that  the  compounded  motion  shall  be  in  orbits 
about  a  common  centre.  All  matter  may  thus  continually 
gravitate  toward  ah1  other  matter,  and  yet  instead  of  com 
ing  together,  one  portion  of  matter  may  move  around 
other  portions.  The  conception  of  gravity,  becomes  thus  a 
centripetal  force,  and  this  balanced  by  a  wholly  indepen 
dent  and  opposite  centrifugal  force.  Whence  these  forces 
come,  is  as  inexplicable  as  whence  the  matter  comes ;  but 
the  conception  is  of  matter,  that  it  is  itself  inert,  and  the 
centripetal  force  is  added  to  make  matter  in  some  cases 
come  together  in  bodies,  and  the  centrifugal  force  is  sepa 
rately  added  in  other  cases  to  keep  the  bodies  apart,  and 
the  two  forces  are  in  other  cases  to  be  compounded  into 
revolving  movements.  These  are  the  imagined  facts,  as 
thought  out  logically  from  the  discovered  facts,  and  thus 
far  only  can  the  discursive  judgment,  or  the  logical  under 
standing,  frame  its  imaginings  to  explain  its  universal  fact 
of  gravity. 

But  precisely  here,  as  in  all  processes  of  the  logical  un 
derstanding,  the  explanation  can  possibly  do  nothing  but 
interpose  the  sophism  of  a  petitio  principii  /  and  when  the 
sophism  is  exposed,  there  is  nothing  left  but  the  alterna 
tives  of  direct  skepticism  on  one  side,  or  the  running  to  an 
eternal  series  on  the  other.  The  bald  skepticism,  the  blank 
doubt  whether  philosophy  knows  any  thing,  is  usually  too 
humiliating  and  unsatisfying,  and  the  common  resort  is  to 
run  up  a  series  for  some  successive  links,  and  then  leave  the 
mind  to  delude  itself  by  a  sophism  that  there  is  somewhere 
up  in  the  indefinite  obscurity  an  absolute  stand-point,  which 
holds  all  fast  and  makes  all  plain.  So  we  have  our  central 
earth  and  revolving  moon ;  and  then  our  central  sun  and 


268  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS   OF   THE   TJNTVEESE. 

revolving  planets  with  all  their  moons ;  and  we  can  stand 
on  our  earth,  and  judge  the  moon  to  have  a  stable  position 
from  which  its  gravity  does  not  need  to  endanger  that  it 
shall  fall  off;  and  then  we  can  take  our  stand  on  the  sun, 
and  the  earth  that  holds  the  moon  is  also  stable ;  and  then 
when  we  ask  for  the  sun's  hold-point,  we  at  once  send  it 
revolving  around  a  higher  centre,  with  a  proportionate 
augmentation  of  repulsive  and  attractive  forces ;  and  then 
this  around  some  higher  and  greater ;  and  finally  lose  our 
selves  in  looking  at,  without  attempting  the  actual  passage 
through,  this  indefinite  regressus.  Or  perhaps  some  one 
brings  in  the  Deity  as  a  grand  gravitating  centre,  and  says 
of  the  last  great  world  that  it  revolves  about  the  throne  of 
God ;  just  as  the  Stoics  said  of  their  empyrean  vortices, 
that  all  were  whirled  from  the  great  central  pyramid, 
which  was  the  watch-tower  of  Jupiter.  We  are  seeking  a 
substantial  static  for  ah1  substances ;  a  central  point  for  all 
gravitating  forces;  and  apparently  unconscious  that  the 
very  attempt  involves  an  absurdity,  we  rest  at  last  in  a 
worse  because  profane  absurdity,  and  of  which  profanity 
we  seem  equally  unconscious,  that  the  spiritual  Jehovah  can 
stand  in  the  place  and  be  degraded  to  the  instrumentalities 
of  material  gravitation.  Thus  it  is  that  the  logical  under 
standing  cannot  come  to  any  science,  because  it  cannot  find 
and  know  any  ultimate.  Its  last  and  highest  is  always  yet 
a  fact  that  can  have  no  explanation,  because  it  cannot 
examine  itself  in  the  light  of  an  eternal  principle.  Go  as 
far  as  we  may  with  the  empirical  conception  of  gravity,  we 
must  at  last  have  a  centre  that  will  fall  down,  and  a  circum 
ference  that  will  fall  off.  As  the  only  corrective  to  this, 
the  law  of  gravity  must  be  an  insight  of  the  reason,  and 


THE   LAW   OF   FALLING-   BODIES.  269 

seen  as  the  one  central  working  that  generates  both  repul 
sion  and  attraction  in  the  antagonism  that  is  constitutive 
of  matter  itself.  The  centre  and  the  circumference  then 
alike  hold  each  other. 

3.  THE  LAW  OF  FALLING  BODIES,  AND  MATERIAL  PRES 
SURE. — The  principle  of  sphericity  from  the  central  force 
of  antagonism  determines  the  laws  that  must  regulate  fall 
ing  bodies,  pendulum  oscillations,  and  fluid  pressure,  and 
which  is  but  the  application  of  the  principle  of  gravity 
to  the  particular  cases.  The  necessary  ratio  of  increasing 
velocity  in  the  falling  body,  both  in  its  free  descent  and 
down  an  inclined  plane,  has  already  been  determined  in  the 
application  of  the  principle,  and  the  facts  in  all  actual  ex 
periments  exactly  accord.  We  have  here  no  occasion  for 
particularizing  the  facts,  inasmuch  as  one  invariable  law 
prevails,  only  making  the  allowance  for  the  density  and  thus 
the  hinderance  of  the  medium  through  which  the  body  falls. 
The  stroke  of  the  fatting  pendulum,  and  the  rise  on  the 
other  side  of  the  perpendicular  from  the  impulse,  and  the 
ratios  of  velocity  and  extremes  of  oscillation  in  pendulum 
rods  of  unequal  lengths,  have  their  determination  from  the 
same  principle,  and  all  experience  finds  the  accordant  law 
in  the  facts.  So  also  with  the  pressure  of  fluids,  both  in 
one  vessel  of  either  perpendicular  or  inclined  sides,  and  in 
any  number  of  vessels  or  branching  compartments  that 
have  their  free  connections,  the  principle  of  sphericity  from 
the  central  force  determines  the  pressure  of  every  fluid 
globule,  and  thus  also  the  rise  and  relative  surfaces  in  each 
compartment,  and  both  principle  and  fact  in  experience 
perpetually  coincide. 

The  only  important  thing  to  note  in  all  these  cases  is, 


270  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

that  the  laws  are  no  generalizations  from  many  conspiring 
facts,  but  the  facts  are  seen  to  have  such  laws  from  the 
necessary  determinations  of  the  principles  in  which  they 
are  all  expounded. 

4.  THE  LAWS  OF  MAGNETISM. — We  shall  find  here 
many  different  applications  of  the  principle  in  varied  cir 
cumstances,  and  thus  as  many  separate  laws  as  there  are 
distinct  circumstantial  facts.  The  principles  of  magnetism 
are  given  in  that  part  of  the  force  of  sphericity  which 
works  from  the  equatorial  plane  on  each  side  out  to  the 
poles.  The  central  working  must  force  the  antagonisms  at 
the  equator  in  each  spherical  layer  to  flow  out  in  contigu 
ous  meridional  lines  quite  to  the  polar  points,  and  thus 
every  molecular  force  in  every  meridian  becomes  statically 
balanced  in  this  equilibration  of  equatorial  and  polar  pres 
sure.  Each  molecular  force  must  also  have  the  line  of  its 
antagonism,  or  particular  polar  direction  towards  the  cen 
tre,  determined  by  its  place  in  the  meridional  line,  viz., 
parallel  with  the  central  antagonism  in  the  equator ;  per 
pendicular  to  this  central  antagonism,  or  the  main  axis,  at 
45°  from  the  equator,  or  midway  to  the  pole ;  and  turned 
quite  round  toward  the  centre,  in  the  line  of  the  main  axis, 
at  the  pole.  In  this  meridional  direction  of  the  force  from 
the  equator  is  the  principle  of  magnetic  polarity ;  in  this 
changing  molecular  direction  towards  the  centre  is  the 
principle  of  magnetic  dip ;  and  the  compounding  of  the 
forces  of  opposite  polarity  and  dip  is  the  principle  of  mag 
netic  attraction  and  repulsion ;  each  of  which  is  plain  to  a 
clear  rational  insight. 

It  is  further  carefully  to  be  noted,  that  the  molecular 


THE   LAWS   OF   MAGNETISM.  271 

forces,  as  mere  antagonisms,  become  chemically  modified 
in  their  combinations  with  the  diremptive  forces  or  heat, 
and  that  as  such  new  molecular  substances  are  combined, 
they  also  become  more  or  less  separated  from  each  other 
and  insulated  in  the  permeating  and  dissolving  action  of 
the  diremptive  or  heat-forces.  Every  molecule  of  matter 
must  have,  however,  its  particular  antagonist  or  polar 
force,  while  it  may  be  in  contact  with  some  molecules  on 
some  sides,  and  separated  by  the  infused  heat  from  other 
adjacent  molecules  on  other  sides,  or  may  be  wholly  insu 
lated  by  the  heat-force  from  all  adjacent  molecules  on  all 
sides.  With  this  full  apprehension  of  magnetic  principles 
hi  polarity,  dip,  and  reciprocal  dynamic  influences;  and 
also  the  more  or  less  separation  of  each  molecule  from 
others  by  heat;  we  are  prepared  to  take  the  facts  and 
their  laws,  as  given  in  actual  experiment,  and  see  how 
these  laws  in  the  facts  are  necessarily  determined  in  the 
eternal  principles. 

Some  bodies  are  found  by  experiment,  when  brought 
within  the  influence  between  the  two  poles  of  a  powerful 
horse-shoe  magnet,  to  arrange  themselves  in  the  same 
plane  with  the  axis  of  the  horse-shoe  magnet,  and  such  are 
called  magnetics  /  other  bodies  so  placed  are  found  to  ar 
range  themselves  at  right  angles  to  this  plane  of  the  mag 
netic  axis,  and  such  are  called  dia-magnetics.  It  is  also 
found  that  some  bodies  manifest  no  susceptibility  to  the 
magnetic  influence  when  placed  as  above,  and  such  are 
said  to  be  indifferent.  Careful  experiment  further  dis 
closes  that  the  magnetics  are  of  the  most  chemically  com 
pact  substances,  or  such  as  have  the  greatest  number  of 


272  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

chemical  elements  in  the  same  volume  of  the  substantial 
combination,  and  the  dia-magnetics  are  the  least  chemically 
compact,  with  few  exceptions.  The  magnetics  may  be 
mentioned  in  the  following  order  of  diminishing  energy : 
iron,  nickel,  cobalt,  manganese,  chromium,  cerium,  titanium, 
paladium,  crown-glass,  platinum,  osmium,  and  oxygen. 
All  other  metals,  and  all  other  matter,  except  atmospheric 
air,  and  such  bodies  as  are  carefully  compounded  to  an 
indifferent  state,  are  dia-magnetics.  The  three  first  mag 
netics  have  230  chemical  elements,  and  the  others  170,  in 
the  same  volume  of  substantial  composition  as  will  contain 
from  150  to  74  elements  in  the  dia-rnagnetics.  The 
marked  exceptions  are  of  the  chemically  compact  sub 
stances,  copper  and  zinc,  which  are  dia-magnetics.  Among 
the  most  readily  dia-magnetic  may  be  put,  in  their  increas 
ing  order,  ether,  alcohol,  water,  mercury,  flint-glass,  tin,  an 
timony,  animal  flesh,  phosphorus,  bismuth.  Copper,  which 
is  chemically  compact  and  yet  dia-magnetic,  becomes  mag 
netic  when  combined  sufficiently  with  oxygen,  and  may  be 
so  carefully  proportioned  as  to  be  indifferent.  A  tube  of 
atmospheric  air,  and  an  exhausted  or  void  tube,  are  both 
also  indifferent. 

The  principle  determines  and  expounds  the  facts.  The 
compact  magnetics  have  their  molecules  so  bound  by  their 
central  antagonism,  and  so  little  dissolved  in  the  diremptive 
action,  that  they  are  as  a  unit  in  their  magnetic  working, 
and  turn  as  one  body  under  the  magnetic  force ;  while  the 
dia-magnetics  have  their  molecules  so  insulated  in  the 
diremptive  infusion,  that  each  molecule  separately  obeys 
the  magnetic  control,  and  those  on  one  side  of  the  body 
are  swayed  by  one  pole  of  the  magnet,  and  those  on  the 


THE   LAWS   OF   MAGNETISM.  273 

other  side  by  the  opposite  pole,  and  thus  the  substance  as 
a  whole  must  turn  and  rest  at  right  angles  to  the  magnetic 
axis.  If  the  substance  has  such  combination  in  itself  as 
exactly  to  hold  the  molecules  together  in  such  proportion 
as  to  neutralize  their  aggregate  magnetic  action,  the  body 
must  become  astatic,  or  indifferent.  A  body  may  be 
chemically  compact,  as  copper  or  zinc,  and  yet  the  com 
pactness  may  admit  of  the  insulation  and  free  movement 
of  the  joint  molecules  in  such  separate  pairs  or  parcels  as 
shall  put  half  the  aggregate  on  one  side  and  half  on  the 
other,  and  make  the  compact  body  still  dia-magnetic ;  and 
then  a  combination  with  other  magnetic  molecules,  as  of  the 
copper  with  oxygen,  may  bind  the  pairs  or  parcels  as  one, 
and  either  energize  as  a  magnetic  or  just  neutralize  as 
indifferent. 

Again,  if  steel-filings  be  evenly  sprinkled  on  a  paste 
board  plane,  and  held  horizontally  over  the  poles  of  the 
horse-shoe  magnet,  they  will  at  once  arrange  themselves  in 
circular  lines  of  collection,  having  a  common  diameter 
midway  between  the  poles  and  at  right  angles  to  the 
magnetic  axis,  and  passing  each  way  around  over  the 
poles,  and  as  the  circles  enlarge  outward,  their  tendency 
is  more  and  more  to  extend  the  circuit  beyond  the  poles, 
and  then  to  turn  in  each  way  upon  the  pole  as  if  to  com 
bine  and  pass  down  in  the  magnetic  axis  to  the  centre. 
So,  manifestly,  the  principle  of  magnetic  polarity  deter 
mines  the  facts  must  be.  The  steel-filings  on  the  paste 
board  are  the  index  of  the  forces  in  a  magnetic  sphere,  as 
if  the  sphere  had  been  bisected  from  pole  to  pole  through 
its  axis.  The  magnetic  meridians  of  each  concentric  layer, 
on  opposite  sides  through  the  globe,  are  here  laid  open, 
18 


274:  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVEESE. 

and  we  can  trace  the  path  of  the  central  working  outward, 
in  the  cropping  out  edges  of  the  successive  layers,  to  the 
circumference.  The  opposite  polarities,  the  slight  gather 
ings  of  equatorial,  and  the  rapidly  accumulating  collections 
of  both  the  polar  attractions,  and  the  turning  dip  over 
beyond  the  poles  and  passing  down  the  axis  on  each  side 
to  the  centre,  are  all  perpetual  laws  in  every  experiment, 
as  the  principle  determines  the  facts  must  be. 

The  magnetic  force  is  always  manifestly  in  and  with  the 
magnetic  body,  and  can  never  be  separated  and  retained 
as  if  one  magnet  had  been  exhausted  by  what  another  may 
have  received ;  and  if  a  magnet  be  divided,  or  broken  in 
many  fragments,  each  portion  is  still  at  once  a  whole  with 
its  own  polarity,  dip,  and  attractive  and  repulsive  influ 
ences.  The  very  force  of  magnetism  is  its  space-filling, 
matter-constituting  force ;  not  a  force  from  some  inscruta 
ble  source  moving  amid  dead  atoms  and  registering  itself  in 
their  arrangement,  but  a  force  which  constitutes  and  is  the 
molecular  matter,  and  thus  of  course  the  disposer  of  it  in 
the  necessary  law  of  its  own  movement;  and  therefore 
always  inherent  in  all  matter  as  truly  as  gravity  itself,  and 
in  the  circumstances  as  really  obeying  its  law  in  the  dia- 
magnetic,  and  in  the  indifferent  body,  as  in  the  magnetic. 
And  as  every  divided  and  broken  portion  of  a  body  at  once 
thereby  attains  its  own  centre  and  makes  itself  to  be  a  new 
gravitating  whole,  so,  necessarily  in  the  same  way,  must 
each  fragment  be  a  new  magnetic  whole,  in  the  instant  out 
going  of  its  equatorial  and  polar  activities.  The  law  is  but 
that  which  the  prior  principle  has  determined. 

'  A  substance  that  is  a  magnetic  is  often  found  to  be  in 
such  a  state  as  to  give  no  indications  of  polarity,  dip,  or 


THE   LAWS   OF   MAGNETISM.  275 

attractive  and  repulsive  power,  and  such  substances  are 
said  to  be  quiescent,  or  in  their  natural  state.  But  when 
such  substances  are  placed  in  proper  positions  relatively  to 
an  active  magnet,  they  become  instantly  or  more  gradually 
actively  magnetic  themselves,  and  such  are  said  to  become 
actively  magnetic  by  induction.  If  such  induced  activity 
be  slow  and  apparently  with  much  difficulty  awakened,  and 
when  so  induced,  if  it  remain  in  constant  activity  for  a  long 
period,  the  substance  so  resisting  and  retaining  is  said  to 
have  coercive  force,  and  when  the  induction  is  instantane 
ous  on  the  presentation  of  the  active  magnet,  and  as  in 
stantly  ceases  when  removed,  the  substance  is  said  to  have 
no  coercive  force. 

As  illustrations  of  the  above,  there  may  be  given  the 
following  facts.  If  a  bar  of  steel,  in  a  quiescent  or  natural 
state,  be  in  certain  specified  methods  subjected  to  the  in 
fluence  of  a  powerfully  active  magnet,  it  will  itself  gradual 
ly  become  actively  magnetic  by  induction,  and  will  retain 
the  constant  activity  for  a  long  period,  thus  manifesting  a 
high  degree  of  coercive  force.  But  if  a  bar  of  soft  iron  be 
so  subjected  to  an  active  magnet,  it  will  itself  be  instantly 
active  by  induction,  and  on  withdrawing  it  from  the  per 
manently  active  magnet,  it  will  as  instantaneously  become 
quiescent,  thus  showing  that  it  has  no  coercive  force. 

The  eternal  principle  in  the  reason,  which  determines  all 
magnetic  force,  at  once  reveals  and  expounds  these  neces 
sary  laws  of  all  magnetic  induction.  When  the  molecular 
forces  in  the  magnetic  substance  are  so  dissolved  by  the 
permeating  diremptive  action,  or  force  of  heat,  as  to  admit 
of  their  being  turned  in  their  particular  polar  directions  in 
all  ways  promiscuously  relatively  to  each  other,  then  is  the 


276  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS   OF   THE   TJNIVEESE. 

substance  magnetically  quiescent ;  but  on  the  presentation 
of  a  powerfully  active  magnet,  every  molecule  in  the 
quiescent  mass  is  made  to  feel  the  force  of  this  magnet  in 
its  attractions  and  repulsions  and  to  assume  their  relative 
polar  directions  accordingly,  and  thus  the  whole  bar  has  its 
molecules  so  arranged  that  as  a  unit  it  acts  magnetically. 
If  the  molecules  were  so  slightly  dissolved  and  insulated  by 
the  combined  heat  as  to  admit  of  their  changes  of  position 
relatively,  only  with  great  difficulty,  then  was  there  much 
coercive  force,  as  in  the  hard  steel  bar,  and  they  will  retain 
their  magnetically  active  position  with  proportionate  tena 
city  ;  but  if  the  molecules  were  so  dissolved  and  separated 
as  easily  to  turn  into  their  symmetrical  polar  positions,  as 
in  the  soft  iron  bar,  then  also  will  they  lose  their  magneti 
cally  active  position  as  readily.  When  the  steel  bar  is 
under  the  inductive  influence,  if  it  be  repeatedly  struck, 
and  its  molecules  suddenly  agitated  by  the  blows,  its  mag 
netically  active  process  is  very  much  hastened.  So  also,  if 
the  soft  iron  bar  be  hammered  and  thereby  considerably 
condensed,  while  under  the  inductive  influence,  the  mole 
cules  are  thus  hindered  in  their  change  of  polar  positions, 
and  there  is  at  once  given  a  proportionally  coercive  force 
and  a  retention  of  magnetic  activity.  Heat  also,  when 
strongly  applied  to  an  active  steel  magnet,  so  far  dissolves 
and  loosens  the  molecules  and  destroys  the  coercive  force. 

In  this  induction  of  magnetic  activity,  the  respective 
poles  arrange  themselves  invariably  in  the  order  of  an 
opposite  pole  in  the  induced  magnet  nearest  to  whichever 
pole  it  may  be  in  the  inducing  magnet.  Thus  if  the  boreal 
pole  of  the  active  magnet  be  applied,  the  end  of  the  bar 
nearest  to  this  in  the  induced  magnet  will  be  an  austral 


THE   LAWS   OF   MAGNETISM.  277 

pole,  and  vice  versa.  If  the  active  pole  be  put  in  the  mid 
dle  of  the  bar,  the  induced  magnet  will  have  one  pole  com 
mon  to  the  two  halves  of  the  bar  and  of  the  opposite  kind 
to  the  applied  pole,  while  the  two  ends  of  the  bar  will  be 
alike  and  of  the  same  kind  as  the  applied  pole,  making  the 
induced  bar,  indeed,  to  become  two  magnets.  And  if  the 
active  pole  be  applied  to  the  centre  of  a  circular  plate  of 
soft  iron,  the  central  portion  will  be  an  induced  polarity 
opposite  to  that  of  the  applied  pole,  and  the  whole  circum 
ference  of  the  soft  iron  plate  will  have  a  polarity  like  the 
applied  pole ;  the  whole  plate,  indeed,  becoming  so  many 
distinct  magnets  in  every  radius,  the  central  ends  being  all 
of  one  polarity  opposite  in  kind  to  the  applied  pole,  and  the 
outer  ends  being  all  of  one  polarity  and  the  same  in  kind  as 
the  applied  pole. 

The  principle  of  magnetic  attraction  and  repulsion  also 
determines  this  law  of  inductive  polarity,  for  the  applied 
pole  with  its  specific  direction  and  dip  must  repel  similar 
polarities  and  put  them  the  furthest  from  itself,  and  attract 
opposite  polarities  and  place  them  the  nearest  to  itself,  and 
thus  make  the  neutral  point,  or  centre  of  the  magnetic  axis, 
midway  between  the  two  induced  poles.  And  this  same 
principle  of  magnetic  attraction  and  repulsion  determines 
the  law  in  another  very  remarkable  series  of  polarities 
given  in  peculiar  cases.  If  the  quiescent  bar  have  all  along 
its  length  inequalities  of  density,  then  will  the  induced  mag 
netic  action  form  itself  into  successive  centres  in  these  denser 
parts,  and  with  their  boreal  and  austral  poles  the  nearest 
to  the  applied  pole  of  an  opposite  kind,  and  the  furthest 
from  the  applied  pole  of  the  same  kind ;  thus  making  an 
induced  magnet  to  have  what  is  called  consecutive  polarity. 


278  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVEESE. 

The  magnetic  axis  is  often  other  than  the  geometric 
axis  of  the  same  body,  and  this  fact  is  also  explicable  by 
the  same  principle.  If  the  molecules  were  all  equally  free, 
and  all  equally  energetic  in  polar  force,  then  must  the  mag 
netic  and  the  gravitating  centres  be  the  same,  and  the 
arrangement  of  molecules  from  the  centre  be  the  same, 
and  thus  in  each  case  the  magnetic  and  gravitating  axes 
must  be  the  same;  but  if  some  of  the  portions  of  the 
magnetic  body  have  facilities  or  hinderances  in  the  changes 
of  molecular  polarities  in  different  degrees  on  opposite 
sides  or  ends,  and  these  do  not  correspond  with  the  chemi 
cal  combinations  in  the  same  portions  as  to  their  density 
and  gravity,  then  must  the  magnetic  and  geometric  cen 
tres  and  axes  differ,  for  the  inductive  force  cannot  then 
follow  and  conform  itself  to  the  force  of  gravity.  Thus 
the  aggregate  forces  in  the  chemical  combinations  and  the 
molecular  polarities,  the  one  as  gravity  and  the  other  as 
magnetism,  may  have  considerable  disparity,  and  thus  disa 
greement  in  the  position  of  their  respective  axes,  and  yet 
no  modification  of  the  chemical  combinations  and  mole 
cular  polarities  will  be  likely  to  occur  that  will  very 
far  sunder  the  one  axis  from  the  other,  though  con 
stant  changes  may  make  perpetual  variations  in  polar 
directions. 

The  laws  of  terrestrial  magnetism  are  determined  from 
the  same  principles  as  the  laws  of  magnetism  in  any  de 
tached  terrestrial  substances.  Indeed,  the  earth  is  to  be 
considered  as  the  great  fountain  of  magnetic  force,  from 
whence  all  separate  smaller  magnets  on  the  earth  are  in 
duced.  As  the  universal  sphere  of  the  primitive  ether 
must  be  magnetic,  so  all  globes,  the  base  of  whose  matter 


THE   LAWS    OF   MAGNETISM.  279 

is  this  primitive  ether,  and  which  have  been  formed  in  the 
free  action  of  central  forces,  must  be  also  magnetic.  So 
the  fact  is,  and  so  all  the  laws  in  the  facts  of  terrestrial 
magnetism  are  found  to  be.  The  earth  is  a  magnet ;  of 
opposite  poles ;  its  poles  repel  similar  and  attract  opposite 
poles ;  its  forces  of  attraction  and  repulsion  are  in  the  ratio 
inversely  as  the  squares  of  the  distance,  and  the  attrac 
tions  and  repulsions,  neutralized  at  the  equator,  are  aug 
mented  gradually  each  way  to  the  poles ;  and  the  mag 
netic  dip,  determining  these  attractions  and  repulsions, 
is  conformably  of  opposite  poles  on  opposite  sides  of  the 
equator,  and  from  a  tangent  to  the  globe  at  the  equator, 
successively  inclined  towards  and  athwart  the  circumfer 
ence  as  it  approaches  the  poles,  till  at  the  poles  it  becomes 
a  direct  line  in  the  axis  toward  the  centre. 

So  also  the  earth  is  an  inducing  magnet,  and  iron  and 
steel  bars  become  magnetic  precisely  from  its  induction  as 
from  other  smaller  magnets.  It  has  its  non-conforming 
gravitating  or  rotating  and  magnetic  poles  and  axes,  and 
an  equator  as  magnetic  cutting  twice  across  its  geometric 
equator.  While  the  geometric  lines,  polar,  equatorial  and 
meridional,  are  all  regular  and  conformable,  the  mag 
netic  lines  are  all  slightly  irregular  and  unconformable 
each  to  each.  The  axis  is  not  with  regular  polar  extremi 
ties,  the  equator  is  not  in  a  uniform  plane,  and  the  isoclinic 
and  iso-dynamic  lines  are  not  in  any  straight  direction. 
The  whole  action  of  the  terrestrial  magnetic  force  evinces 
that  it  is  following  a  law  determined  by  the  modified 
molecular  polarities  somewhat  differently  from  the  gravi 
tating  and  geometrically  sphere-forming  forces.  Hence 
its  gradual  polar  and  other  changes,  and  which  have  not 


280  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

been,  and  from  their  heterogenous  sources  can  never  be 
brought  into  any  conforming  cycles  with  the  geological 
movements.  Isothermic  and  iso-dynamic  lines  may  be 
nearly  conformable,  for  the  equilibrations  of  light  and 
heat,  which  modify  magnetic  force,  should  there  leave  the 
magnetic  force  in  its  most  unhindered  and  equal  action. 

5.  THE  LAW  OF  ELECTRICITY. — Inasmuch  as  the  earth 
is  a  magnet,  so  must  it  also  be  the  great  source  of  elec 
tricity  for  the  experience  of  those  who  dwell  upon  it. 
The  earth  may  have  its  interruptions,  in  its  regular  mag 
netic  arrangements  of  molecular  polarity,  quite  deep  down 
in  some  of  the  meridians  of  its  inner  spherical  layers,  but 
if  these  should  occur  they  would  be  out  of  the  reach  of 
our  observation,  and  perhaps  the  superincumbent  pressure 
may  nearly  or  altogether  prevent  such  internal  derange 
ment.  Our  experience  of  electrical  phenomena  must  be 
of  such  only  as  are  superficial  in  respect  to  the  earth,  and 
indeed  in  ah1  electrical  appearances  in  any  matter  con 
nected  with  the  earth,  the  phenomena  will  be  on  the  sur 
face  of  the  material  bodies,  for  the  outer  layers  become  an 
occasion  for  the  ready  restoration  of  any  deranged  polar 
ity  that  may  occur  within  the  interior  structure.  So  also 
the  earth  readily  receives  and  neutralizes  all  electric  ten 
sion  that  is  positive  in  any  portion  of  the  atmosphere 
within  about  four  feet  of  its  surface,  and  below  this  line, 
atmospherical  positive  electricity  is  not  found. 

But  in  the  surface  of  the  earth,  and  the  material  bodies 
upon  it,  and  in  the  atmosphere  and  its  vapors,  we  have  all 
the  occasions  for  actual  polar  derangement  and  magnetic 
interruption,  that  we  were  obliged  to  take  only  in  antici 
pation  when  we  considered  the  eternal  principle  in  the 


THE   LAW   OF   ELECTRICITY.  281 

Idea  itself  of  electricity.  Every  terrestrial  molecule  may 
be  separated  from  others  by  the  permeating  action  of  the 
diremptive  force,  and  such  isolation  by  heat  gives  at  once 
occasion  for  the  molecule  to  change  the  true  meridional 
polar  direction,  and  so  far  to  interrupt  the  static  equili 
brium,  and  thereby  necessarily  induce  an  electrical  tension 
in  the  contiguous  molecules  that  are  in  their  true  polar 
direction.  "We  have  here,  therefore,  all  the  desired  oppor 
tunity  for  actually  applying  to  the  facts  the  determinations 
of  our  previously  attained  principles. 

Mechanical  attrition,  thermal  expansion,  and  chemical 
changes,  make  derangements  of  corpuscular  polarity,  and 
in  such  interruptions  of  regular  polar  action,  there  comes 
at  once  the  tension  in  the  neighboring  molecules  which 
gives  rise  to  all  the  phenomena  of  electricity.  As  these 
molecules  are  within  the  body  of  the  earth  at  its  surface, 
or  in  detached  bodies  upon  the  earth,  or  as  in  the  atmo 
sphere  itself  and  the  matter  surrounded  by  it,  so  will  the 
peculiarities  of  the  electrical  phenomena  be  varied ;  and 
our  present  business  is  to  see,  that  these  variations  in  the 
facts  have  their  necessary  laws  determined  by  the  eternal 
principles  we  have  beforehand  apprehended. 

When  this  electric  tension  is  excited,  if  the  tension  be 
restrained  and  cannot  pass  on  and  restore  the  interruption, 
the  electricity  is  said  to  be  in  a  static  condition,  and  when 
it  moves  on  in  forcing  out  this  derangement,  the  electricity 
is  dynamic.  One  substance  excited  to  an  electric  tension 
must  press  upon  the  molecules  of  a  contiguous  substance, 
and  if  they  are  in  such  a  state  of  free  polarity  as  to  be 
modified  by  the  influence,  and  become  themselves  electri 
cally  intense,  such  secondary  bodies  are  said  to  become 


282  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

electric  by  induction.  All  bodies  are  somewhat  suscep 
tible  to  this  electric  tension  by  induction,  but  some 
very  sluggishly  and  slightly,  and  others  very  readily  and 
strongly;  the  former  are  called  di-electrics  or  non-conduc 
tors,  the  latter  are  electrics,  but  usually  denominated  con 
ductors.  Di-electrics,  when  surrounding  bodies  under 
tension,  or  interposed  between  them  and  other  substances 
which  they  might  influence,  thus  cutting  off  their  progress 
and  keeping  their  electricity  static,  are  said  to  be  insular 
tors,  and  the  static  electrical  body  is  said  to  be  insulated. 
Some  bodies  when  excited  always  give  a  positive  electric 
tension,  and  others  always  a  negative,  and  some  bodies 
vary  according  to  the  manner  of  the  excitement ;  usually 
positive  when  excited  by  the  harder  or  more  polished 
substance,  and  negative  when  excited  by  a  softer  or 
rougher  substance,  but  no  examination  of  the  one  sub 
stance  can  previously  determine,  for  it  is  the  whole  current 
of  the  tension  operating,  or  the  relative  tendencies  of  the 
molecules  in  all  the  substances  exciting,  that  must  decide 
which  way  the  induced  or  excited  tension  shall  have  its 
pressure.  Some  may  be  of  so  positive  a  tendency  as  in 
variably  to  excite  the  positive  tension,  and  some  the 
reverse,  and  such  will  be  known  respectively  as  positive 
electrics,  or  negative  electrics.  Chemical  dissolution  may 
be  made  to  keep  on  a  perpetual  and  strong  action  more 
readily  than  mechanical  friction,  and  may  thus  secure  a 
continued  stream  of  electric  forces ;  and  such  stream  must 
always  have  its  two  currents  in  opposite  directions,  for  as 
the  one  polarity  sets  in  one  direction,  the  opposite  polarity 
must  counterwork  in  an  opposite  direction.  The  sub 
stance,  as  a  wire  of  copper  or  soft  iron,  that  takes  these 


THE   LAW    OF   ELECTRICITY.  283 

currents  in  tbeir  circuits  is  said  to  possess  electrical  poles 
according  to  the  kind  of  electricity  that  forms  the  particu 
lar  current,  one  the  positive  pole^  the  other  the  negative 
pole.  The  electric  current  is  purely  a  stream  of  forces, 
and  may  not  carry  along  in  locomotion  any  of  the  mole 
cules  it  particularly  polarizes,  any  more  than  the  wind 
carries  along  the  standing  gram-heads  in  the  waves  that 
pass  over  a  wheat-field ;  for  the  molecules  merely  oscillate 
to  and  fro  on  their  centres,  in  the  alternations  of  the  pass 
ing  impulses  of  the  two  opposite  currents  in  one  and  the 
same  circuit,  or  in  the  alternations  of  induction  and  neu 
tralization  of  one  of  the  currents,  each  in  its  own  wire. 

But  while  the  molecules  of  the  substance  thus  alternate 
ly  oppositely  polarized,  or  alternately  polarized  and  neutral 
ized,  do  not  move  in  their  centres  from  their  places,  the 
electric  force  in  its  tension  does  move  along  the  whole 
course  of  the  wire,  and  like  the  wind  over  the  grain,  may 
carry  along  other  things  while  it  leaves  in  their  places  those 
things  it  makes  only  to  oscillate.  If  the  positive  and  nega 
tive  poles  at  the  ends  of  the  two  wires  of  a  voltaic  pile  be 
tipped  with  each  its  piece  of  sharpened  charcoal,  and  then 
these  points  of  charcoal  be  brought  in  contact,  they  will 
immediately  ignite.  If  then  they  be  separated  at  a  little 
distance,  a  stream  of  light  will  arch  up  from  their  tips 
between  them,  and  by  carefully  guarding  the  eyes  with 
colored  glasses,  in  the  intense  light  may  be  seen  fine  parti 
cles  as  dust  carried  across  from  the  positive  to  the  negative 
pole,  and  even  slight  detonations  may  be  distinctly  heard, 
as  the  particles  of  charcoal  are  torn  off  to  fly  through  this 
bright  arch.  If  the  charcoal  be  displaced  by  soft  iron  balls, 
and  the  current  be  made  to  pass  for  some  time,  the  bah1  at 


284  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

the  positive  pole  will  have  its  substance  pretty  rapidly  car 
ried  away  and  be  very  considerably  diminished  in  actual 
weight. 

This  is  as  the  principle  determines  it  must  be.  We  are 
now  able  not  only  to  say  in  theory  that  the  molecules 
vibrate,  and  the  torn  off  particles  actually  pass  from  the 
positive  to  the  negative  pole,  but  we  can  see  this  to  be  a 
necessary  law,  determined  in  the  eternal  principle  that  the 
central  force  must  make  its  passage  from  positive  to  nega 
tive  in  the  magnetic  meridians,  and  when  there  is  any 
derangement  of  polarity  in  any  matter  connected  with  the 
earth,  this  force  must  press  itself  upon  that  point  of 
derangement  and  in  its  excess  of  tension  must  move 
through  it,  modifying  in  its  course  the  molecular  polarity 
and  it  may  be,  on  occasion  given,  taking  up  particles  of 
matter  and  carrying  them  along  in  its  circuit  across  the 
chasm  from  one  pole  to  the  other. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  of  this  luminous  arch,  that  it  is 
not  from  any  proper  combustion  of  the  particles  carried 
through  it,  for  the  illumination  is  equally  brilliant  in  the 
absence  of  all  oxygen,  and  thus  excluding  all  combustion. 
The  light  is  from  the  decomposition  of  the  material  mole 
cules  which  the  electric  force  passes  through  in  the  atmo 
sphere,  and  thereby  liberates  the  heat  that  had  been  held 
in  combination  and  which  in  its  freedom  becomes  a  new 
source  of  illumination.  The  electrical  spark  from  a  dis 
charged  conductor  must  be  from  the  same  determined 
law,  and  the  zig-zag  course  of  the  lightning  is  of  the  same 
law  of  decomposition ;  the  electrical  force,  in  its  passage 
through  the  material  space-filling  forces,  being  resisted  and 
consequently  deflected. 


THE   LAW   OF   ELECTRICITY.  285 

This  principle  of  active  circularity  from  positive  to 
negative  circumscribes  many  facts  within  its  law,  that  have 
been  clearly  observed  but  not  expounded.  Among  them  is 
the  different  shape  which  the  lights,  or  sparks,  at  the  posi 
tive  and  negative  poles  assume ;  that  at  the  positive  pole 
taking  on  the  diverging  appearance  as  expanding  from  the 
polar  point  into  a  brush,  while  the  negative  pole  gives  off 
its  light  divergent,  but  as  if  radiating  from  the  polar  point 
as  a  star.  This  should  so  be  from  the  order  of  movement. 
The  positive  electricity  is  the  moving  point  of  the  tension, 
and  in  passing  through  any  chasm  in  the  conductor  must  in 
the  resisting  medium  be  expanded  to  a  brush,  while  the 
negative  point  only  as  a  static  sustains  the  positive  at  rest 
in  their  meeting,  and  must  have  its  light  flattened  and 
scattered  to  a  star.  And  so  also  with  the  distances  from 
the  poles  where  the  perforation  through  an  intervening 
substance  takes  place.  If  a  pasteboard  be  so  placed  longi 
tudinally  between  the  polar  points  of  the  wires  that  it  shall 
meet  the  positive  pole  in  one  of  its  sides  and  the  negative 
pole  in  the  opposite  side,  the  perforation  of  the  pasteboard 
will  ordinarily  be  directly  opposite  to  the  negative  pole. 
The  current  makes  its  passage  along  the  side  of  the  paste 
board  through  the  atmosphere  the  most  readily,  hence  it 
passes  on  quite  opposite  to  the  negative  pole  when  it  must 
perforate  the  obstacle  and  join  the  negative  force  to  bal 
ance  itself.  If  this  passage  be  made  in  vacua,  the  current 
takes  the  pasteboard  as  its  sole  medium  of  communication, 
and  makes  the  perforation  any  where  between  the  poles  in 
the  most  feasible  place  the  peculiarity  of  the  pasteboard 
happens  to  give,  thus  determining  the  law  for  the  observed 
fact,  that  perforations  in  an  exhausted  receiver  are  seldom 


286  THE   NECESSAEY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVEESE. 

opposite  the  negative  pole,  but  at  some  place  between  the 
poles  and  such  point  never  beforehand  determinable.  The 
character  of  such  perforations  is  also  worthy  of  note.  The 
orifice  does  not  present  the  appearance  of  its  having  been 
forced  through  like  the  piercing  of  a  bodkin,  but  as  if  it 
had  been  forced  from  the  interior  of  the  pasteboard  each 
way  out  to  the  surface,  leaving  the  edges  of  the  orifice 
burred  on  each  side  of  the  board.  If  the  movement  of  the 
positive  tension  had  been  a  substantial  movement,  carrying 
along  some  moving  body,  which  body  had  itself  perforated 
the  pasteboard,  then  must  the  orifice  have  been  a  pushing 
in  on  one  side  and  a  burring  out  on  the  other ;  but  inas 
much  as  it  is  only  the  tension  as  force  that  moves,  and  this 
motion  is  by  a  perpetual  oscillation  of  molecules,  the  mole 
cules  themselves  become  displaced  in  the  pasteboard  and 
the  rupture  must  be  as  an  explosion  from  the  inside. 

So  also  with  the  law  of  diffusion  of  the  electric  tension 
over  the  surfaces  of  conducting  bodies.  The  induction  is 
made  while  the  conductor  is  insulated,  and  thus  the  insu 
lating  di-electric  retains  the  electric  tension  to  the  surface 
of  the  conductor,  and  as  this  accumulates  by  the  perpetua 
tion  of  the  exciting  agency,  there  must  be  a  continually 
augmenting  tension  on  the  conducting  surface.  This  is 
found  in  fact  so  to  be,  and  to  be  evenly  distributed  over  a 
spherical  surface,  and  to  accumulate  at  the  extremes  just 
in  proportion  as  the  surface  recedes  from  a  spherical  form. 
An  ellipsoid  has  an  excess  at  its  extremities  above  that  at 
its  plane  of  the  shorter  axis  just  in  proportion  to  its  eccen 
tricity,  and  a  needle  has  almost  the  entire  energy  at  its 
point,  while  all  solids  have  the  tension  at  the  edges  and 
angles  in  the  same  excess  of  their  distance  from  a  spherical 


THE   LAW   OF  'ELECTRICITY.  287 

centre.  This  must  manifestly  so  be,  since  an  accumulation 
upon  any  surface  from  whence  there  is  no  exit  must  range 
its  positive  tension  on  one  side  in  opposition  to,  and  in 
equilibrium  with,  its  negative  tension  on  the  other,  and 
thus  the  middle  must  be  as  an  equatorial  plane  making  its 
two  hemispheres  of  electrical  tensions,  and  which  must 
proportionally  spread  themselves  each  over  its  own  pecu 
liarly  shaped  surface.  In  this  is  found  all  the  practical 
utility  of  points  in  electrical  conductors. 

The  electrical  tension  must  always  complete  its  move 
ment  in  a  circuit,  and  this  circuit  must  ultimately  have  its 
two  terminations  somewhere  in  the  earth.     A  conductor 
may  be  insulated,  and  the  surrounding  di-electrics  may  for 
awhile  detain  the  accumulations  to  the  conducting  surface, 
but  perpetual   accumulations  must  ultimately  force  their 
passage  to  a  further  point  of  equilibrium,  nor   can  the 
regressus  stop  in  the  perpetual  accumulations,  until  the 
ultimate  static  be  a  balance  for  the  originating  dynamic. 
But  this  originating  dynamic  tension  is  always  from  the 
earth,  in  all  human  experience.      The  electrical  machine 
and  the  voltaic  pile  have  no  permanent  force,  except  as 
they  are  connected  with  the  great  reservoir  of  all  electrical 
energy  within  the  earth's  surface.    As  the  exciting  agency 
goes  on,  and  the  molecular  polarity  is  disturbed  in  the 
excited  point,  the  tension  from  the  terrestrial  connection 
forces  in,  and  the  instantaneous  opposite  polarity  arises  at 
this   point   of   disturbance   and    interruption   of    regular 
polarity.     The  terrestrial  force  may  urge  on  to  broader 
and  broader  surfaces,  and  all  the  play  of  the  many-league 
surface  of  the  thunder-cloud  may  be  called  into  action, 
but  nothing  can  balance  the  originating  terrestrial  force 


288  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

till  the  circuit  puts  its  opposite  end  against  the  earth,  and 
finds  here  the  static  exactly  equilibrating  the  dynamic,  and 
then  all  is  at  rest.  The  circuit  may  come  completely 
round  and  find  its  return  to  the  earth  in  the  same  connect 
ing  medium  that  was  the  passage  for  the  tension  out  of  it, 
as  is  the  case  in  the  common  electrical  machine,  or  it  may 
run  its  points  to  and  from  the  earth  at  many  miles  distance 
between,  as  in  the  telegraph-wire,  but  in  no  way  can  one 
end  balance  the  other,  nor  any  interruption  of  polarity 
restore  its  equilibrium,  but  by  making  the  positive  and 
negative  stand  somewhere  in  their  extremes  in  the  great 
magnetic  courses  of  the  earth.  Thus,  in  fact,  the  electric 
tension  completes  the  circuit,  not  by  any  imagined  direct 
course  beneath  the  surface  of  the  earth  from  point  to 
point,  but  only  by  falling  at  each  end  into  the  great  circuit 
that  goes  up  through  the  earth's  pole  and  down  the  axis 
to  the  terrestrial  centre.  Each  electrical  circuit,  whether 
through  a  dozen  hands  that  hold  themselves  to  the  chains 
of  the  common  electrical  machine,  or  through  the  tele 
graph-wire  that  may  span  the  Atlantic,  is  but  a  portion 
of  the  earth's  magnetic  meridian,  taken  up  and  turned 
and  looped,  and  its  polarities  interrupted  and  used  at 
pleasure ;  and  such  use  of  that  very  force  which  from  the 
centre  enspheres  the  earth,  may  to  any  extent  be  made  by 
man  according  to  its  necessitated  laws.  It  is  the  same 
subjection  of  the  powers  of  nature  to  human  ends  as  that 
which  employs  the  magnetic  compass,  and  as  the  same 
force  of  magnetism  when  interrupted  in  its  polarity  be 
comes  electrical  tension,  so  that  may  be  used  like  the 
magnet  with  reversed  poles  across  the  equator  into  an 
opposite  hemisphere. 


THE   LAW    OF    ELECTRICITY.  289 

The  combination  of  electricity  and  magnetism,  whether 
as  magneto-electric  or  electro-magnetic,  has  its  clear  deter 
mination  of  necessary  laws  from  eternal  principle,  as  truly 
as  either  one  separately.  The  transverse  polar  action  of 
the  combined  energies  of  magnetism  and  electric  currents, 
which  necessarily  result  from  their  principles,  may  readily 
give  all  the  circular  mechanical  movements  which  experi 
ments  have  disclosed.  Thus  the  opposite  helices  of  the 
electric  current,  that  have  been  made  to  encircle  the  two 
bent  arms  of  the  soft  iron  bar,  must  make  the  modified 
molecules  of  the  bar  to  take  on  the  precise  polarity  of  the 
magnet,  and  in  the  augmenting  tensions  of  the  electric 
current,  we  have  the  horse-shoe  magnet  of  unrivalled 
energy.  The  principle  of  interrupted  magnetic  polarity 
will  give  all  the  principles  of  electric  tension,  and  this 
determines  all  laws  of  electricity.  The  law  as  it  comes 
out  in  nature  is  no  arbitrary  fact,  that  might  as  well  have 
been  otherwise ;  the  fact  is  determined  by  a  principle 
which  is  seen  to  be  prior  to  it,  and  conditional  for  it ;  and 
only  in  the  application  of  the  principle  can  we  have  any 
scientific  explication  of  the  facts  we  find.  We  know 
not  only  so  they  are,  but  we  know  the  reason  why  they 
are  so. 

6.  LAWS  OF  HEAT. — The  principle  of  heat  is  found  in 
the  necessary  radiation  of  vibratory  movements,  on  all 
sides,  from  any  point  where  the  diremptive  activity  works 
adversely  upon  and  in  the  midst  of  the  antagonist  activity. 
The  same  principle  in  general  is  the  determination  of  both 
heat  and  light,  and  only  as  the  heat  vibrations  are  more 
divellent,  and  thus  occurring  in  broader  spaces  and  wider 

angles,  are  they  to  be  found  giving  their  phenomena  dis- 
19 


:290  THE   NECES3AKY   LAWS   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

tinct  from  the  phenomena  of  light.  In  those  particulars 
where  the  phenomena  have  the  same  laws,  the  explication 
will  best  be  effected  when  we  come  to  consider  the  laws  of 
light,  but  in  the  instances  of  distinct  law  for  heat  we  will 
here  note  the  facts  as  determined  in  their  principles. 

A  prismatic  spectrum,  which  we  shall  more  fully  explain 
in  connection  with  the  facts  of  light,  may  be  divided  into 
portions  of  three  different  degrees  in  the  refrangibility  of 
the  transmitted  rays,  the  most  refrangible  being  the  most 
chemically  efficient,  the  least  refrangible  the  most  thermally 
efficient,  and  the  intervening  the  most  luminously  efficient. 
They  overlie  each  other  at  their  junctions,  but  the  greatest 
thermal  intensity  is  always  low  down,  and  sometimes  be 
neath  the  luminous  part  of  the  spectrum.  The  slower, 
longer  and  broader  vibrations  have  most  momentum  and 
are  least  refrangible,  and  these  constitute  the  thermal 
radiations. 

These  thermal  rays,  when  passed  through  an  orifice  by 
themselves,  may  be  subjected  to  particular  experiments, 
and  the  laws  which  govern  them  in  the  various  particulars 
of  reflection,  refraction,  diffraction,  interference  and  polar 
ization,  are  the  same  as  for  light,  except  as  length  and 
rapidity  of  vibration  give  the  necessary  modifications. 

The  radiation  of  heat  is  superficial  only,  inasmuch  as  the 
diremptive  action  beneath  the  surface  of  a  body  is  retained 
by  the  antagonist  working  of  the  molecular  forces  with  it ; 
and  such  radiation  is,  as  from  the  principle  it  should  be, 
from  every  point  in  the  surface  of  the  heated  body.  This 
radiated  heat  is  also  taken  and  absorbed  by  other  surfaces, 
so  that  the  interworking  is  perpetually  reciprocal,  and  no 
heat  is  lost.  The  body  that  gives  less  than  it  receives 


THE   LAWS    OF   HEAT.  291 

becomes  proportionally  hotter,  and  that  which  gives  more 
than  it  receives  becomes  colder,  but  no  body  becomes  so 
exhausted  of  its  heat  that  it  can  radiate  no  more.  The 
most  intense  pressure  and  violent  friction  may  be  given, 
and  which  will  proportionally  quicken  radiation,  but  so 
long  as  the  substance  is  held  in  combination  it  will  have 
radiation  still  going  on.  The  radiations  are  also  reflected 
from  polished  surfaces  and  absorbed  by  rough  and  uneven 
surfaces,  as  in  the  case  of  light,  and  the  same  curvatures  in 
each  case  give  diverging  or  converging  rays,  and  thus  focal 
distances,  under  the  same  laws. 

When  rays  of  heat  are  absorbed  by  certain  bodies 
or  pass  through  other  bodies,  it  is  from  the  same  laws  as  in 
the  absorption  and  transmission  of  light,  and  yet  as  the 
light-vibrations  are  more  refrangible  than  those  of  heat,  it 
should  be  as  it  in  fact  is,  that  some  bodies  which  readily 
absorb  or  transmit  the  one  will  be  very  slow  in  absorbing 
or  transmitting  the  other.  Bodies  which  readily  transmit 
heat  are  termed  diathermanous,  and  those  which  resist 
transmission  are  called  athermanous.  Bodies  which  are 
highly  transparent  may  thus  often  be  very  feebly  diather 
manous.  In  no  case  is  the  same  substance  in  equal  degrees 
for  both,  the  different  refrangibility  in  each  necessitating 
the  distinction.  Thus  rock-salt  is  the  most  perfectly  dia 
thermanous  of  all  bodies,  transmitting  about  92  per  cent, 
of  all  the  rays  of  heat  which  are  incident  upon  it,  while  the 
rays  of  light  pass  with  so  much  difficulty  that  the  salt  is 
simply  translucent,  not  transparent.  On  the  other  hand, 
pure  water  is  very  transparent,  but  only  very  slightly 
diathermanous ;  and  a  plate  combined  of  alum  and  green 
glass  will  readily  transmit  bright  light  while  almost  utterly 


292  THE    NECESSARY    LAWS    OF    THE    UNIVERSE. 

impervious  to  heat.  In  general,  that  degree  of  refrangi- 
bility  in  heat  which  is  also  light  will  penetrate  the  same 
bodies,  but  the  heat  which  is  at  the  same  time  dark  will  be 
refused  transmission  by  many  transparent  substances.  The 
general  principle  for  light  and  heat  is  the  same,  the  modifi 
cation  in  the  law  is  from  the  modified  vibrations. 

When  the  light  and  heat  are  absorbed  and  not  trans 
mitted,  they  still  remain  in  the  body  absorbing  them,  and 
this  received  diremptive  action  should  make  its  correspond 
ent  effects  in  the  body.  That  light  which  is  less  thermal 
in  refrangibility  will  make  its  greater  chemical  effects,  and 
that  which  is  more  thermal  will  manifest  more  heat,  but  it 
will  be  only  as  heat  that  the  effects  in  dilatation  will  be 
exhibited.  The  retained  heat  is  ever  a  diremptive  activity, 
and  except  as  combined  in  molecular  antagonism  so  as  to 
generate  some  new  substance,  it  must  loosen  and  separate 
the  molecules  from  each  other  and  thus  expand  the  body 
proportionally  to  the  thermal  intensity.  Thus  as  a  fact 
solids  expand  with  heat ;  and  the  infusion  of  heat  perpetu 
ated  dissolves  and  isolates  the  molecules,  and  the  body 
becomes  fluid ;  a  further  absorption  of  heat  and  the  mole 
cules  are  still  further  dissipated,  and  the  fluid  becomes 
vapor.  When  the  heat  is  so  intense  as  to  decompose  the 
chemical  combinations  in  the  substance  itself,  and  in  this 
decomposition  to  set  free  also  the  diremptive  force  that 
had  been  held  in  affinity  with  the  antagonist  forces,  and 
thus  dissolving  the  peculiar  molecules  of  the  particular  sub 
stance,  we  have  combustion.  The  molecular  structure  of 
the  substance  is  dissipated,  and  the  liberated  diremptive 
force  is  flame. 

In  this  absorption  of  heat  and  dilatation  of  molecular 


THE   LAWS    OF    HEAT. 

structure  there  is  a  peculiar  law  in  all  substances,  that  the 
passage  from  the  solid  to  the  fluid  state  by  heat,  and 
then  again  the  passage  from  the  fluid  state  to  vapor, 
shall  be  accompanied  by  the  using  up  and  holding  in  a 
latent  and  imperceptible  form  a  large  amount  of  the  heat 
imbibed,  and  which  is  known  as  the,  latent  heat  of  fusion^ 
or  of  vaporization.  This  also  must  all  be  given  off  again, 
in  an  open  and  sensible  manifestation,  before  the  vapor  can 
return  in  condensation  to  the  fluid,  and  the  fluid  to  the 
solid.  The  chemical  molecular  structure  is  not  changed, 
and  thus  there  is  no  change  of  substance  in  the  passage 
from  the  solid  to  the  fluid  and  from  this  to  the  vapor, 
except  as  crystallization  occurs,  and  thus  no  portion  of  this 
latent  heat  is  used  in  any  new  chemical  combination.  The 
heat  that  had  expanded  the  solid  body  only  loosened  and 
separated  the  molecular  layers  in  the  solid  state,  but  for 
the  fluid  state  it  must  loosen  each  molecule  and  quite  sur 
round  and  isolate  it,  and  this  it  does  by  directly  working 
against  the  antagonist  or  gravitating  forces,  and  thus  mak 
ing  itself  to  be  balanced  and  neutralized  thereby ;  and  so 
much  as  is  thus  used  is  held,  in  the  fluid,  in  a  latent  and 
imperceptible  position.  This  must,  of  course,  all  be  set 
free  again  before  the  fluid  can  become  solidified. 

And  so  in  the  fluid  state,  the  molecules  of  the  sub 
stance  have  been  thus  isolated  by  the  combined  action 
of  the  diremptive  and  gravitating  forces,  but  the  molecu 
lar  structure  has  not  itself  been  loosened ;  while  now,  in 
order  that  it  may  pass  into  the  state  of  vapor,  it  is  neces 
sary  that  the  forces  which  chemically  form  the  molecules 
be  relaxed  and  separated,  though  the  chemical  combina 
tion  of  the  molecule  is  not  dissolved  but  only  loosened. 


294:  THE   NECESSAKY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVEKSE. 

This  necessary  use  of  heat  for  the  expansion  of  the  fluid  to 
vapor  is,  in  the  same  way  as  before,  a  neutralizing  and 
thus  balancing  of  the  diremptive  and  antagonist  activities, 
which  luxates  and  expands  the  combinations  in  the  very 
chemical  molecules  themselves,  and  which  in  such  neu 
tralized  action  of  course  makes  so  much  of  the  heat  to  be 
latent,  and  which  must  be  set  free  before  the  vapor  can  be 
condensed  again  to  a  liquid.  Different  substances  will  use 
different  degrees  of  heat  for  such  fusing  and  vaporizing 
processes,  but  the  law  is  determined  by  the  very  principle 
of  diremptive  action  in  the  cases  themselves.  The  latent 
heat  of  fusion  and  of  vaporation  is  the  heat  statically  used 
in  separating  the  chemical  molecules  from  each  other,  and 
also  their  elements  among  themselves. 

And  so  with  animal  heat,  the  principle  of  the  diremp- 
tive-working  is  clearly  determining.  The  animal  body  as 
a  living  organism,  is  kept  at  a  very  steady  temperature 
quite  different  from,  and  usually  much  above,  the  sur 
rounding  material  heat.  There  must  therefore  be  a  con 
tinual  evolution  of  heat  going  on  within  the  animal  organi 
zation.  The  temperature  of  the  blood  in  the  human 
family  is  about  89°  Far. ;  of  fowls,  on  an  average,  about 
105°  ;  of  mammals,  above  100° ;  and  of  fish  about  70°,  all 
of  which  is  much  above  the  usual  temperature  of  the  air 
or  water  in  which  they  live.  Experiments  carefully  made 
have  proved,  that  the  heat  generated  in  animal  life  from 
respiration  and  assimilation,  is  analogous  to  that  which  is 
evolved  in  the  combustion  of  a  common  candle.  The 
watery  vapor,  carbonic  acid,  and  azote  given  off  had  been 
supplied  by  the  oxygen,  carbon,  and  hydrogen,  contained 
in  the  air  and  food,  and  the  heat  produced  by  the  same 


THE    LAWS    OF    LIGHT.  295 

quantity  of  materials  corresponded  in  the  animal  assimila 
tion  and  the  lamp  combustion.  The  life-force  combines 
with  the  forces  in  the  material  elements  used,  and  so 
decomposes  the  chemical  molecules,  that  a  portion  of  the 
heat  is  liberated  in  the  lungs  and  sent  on  through  the 
organism  in  the  blood,  while  other  elements  in  these  chem 
ical  molecules  are  incorporated  into  the  animal  system. 
Our  food  and  respiration  perpetuate  this  supply  for  free 
animal  heat,  just  as  does  the  wick,  tallow  and  air  perpet 
ually  supply  the  heat  from  a  burning  candle. 

7.  LAWS  OF  LIGHT  AND  LUMINIFEKOUS  BODIES. — 
Although  in  the  chapter  on  principles  we  found  the  place 
for  that  of  light,  after  the  formation  of  world-systems,  yet 
inasmuch  as  the  essence  of  light  and  heat  are  the  same, 
and  their  principle  differs  only  as  the  radiating  vibrations 
differ,  and  also  since  none  of  the  facts  that  may  come  under 
the  intervening  divisions  of  chemistry,  crystallization, 
world-formations,  and  planetary  motions,  will  have  any 
special  bearing  upon  the  facts  of  light  and  their  laws,  it 
may  be  the  most  convenient  and  appropriate  to  give  these 
facts  and  laws  a  place  directly  in  connection  with  the  facts 
and  laws  of  heat. 

The  principle  of  radiating  vibrations  is  the  same  as  in 
heat  already  considered,  and  the  sources  from  whence  the 
vibrations  radiate  may  be  any  point  where  the  diremptive 
activities  go  out  in  excess  of  the  antagonist  forces.  To  the 
extent  that  the  central  energy  shall  propagate  the  vibra 
tions  outward  and  onward,  will  be  the  dimensions  of  the 
luminous  sphere,  and  when  the  antagonist  molecules 
equilibrate  this  diremptive  force,  the  radiation  will  be 
exhausted.  The  great  sources  of  light  will  be  the  central 


296  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

worlds  of  the  systems,  but  any  minor  sources  may  be 
opened  where  any  accumulations  or  liberations  from 
decomposition  of  the  peculiarly  modified  diremptions  shall 
occur. 

With  no  obstructions,  the  luminous  source  radiates 
equably  on  all  sides  and  fills  a  certain  sphere,  and  that 
sphere  is  limited  from  the  same  central  source  by  the  rarer 
or  denser  media  that  circumstances  may  compel  the  rays 
to  pass  through.  If  any  obstruction  occur,  the  rays  are 
proportionally  extinguished  in  it,  and  the  shadow  beyond 
is  a  perpetuation  of  extinct  light  in  right  lines  from  the 
source  of  illumination.  If  intervening  material  bodies 
permit  the  light  to  pass  through  with  little  extinction, 
they  are  known  as  transparent  bodies,  and  if  with  so  much 
extinction  as,  though  still  luminous,  to  destroy  the  capa 
bility  of  vision,  they  are  called  translucent  bodies.  Where 
the  opaque  body  is  of  such  relative  proportion  to  the 
luminous  source,  that  the  rays  from  one  side  of  the  lumi 
nous  body  are  extinguished  by  the  opposite  side  of  the 
opaque  body,  some  considerable  distance  from  the  point 
where  the  rays  of  the  other  side  of  the  luminous  body 
become  extinct,  and  the  same  thing  occur  in  the  whole 
outline  of  the  opaque  body,  then  the  shadow  will  have  its 
blended  light  and  shade  as  a  complete  outside  edge,  and 
which  is  known  as  the  penumbra.  All  of  which  fall  under 
laws  plainly  determined  in  the  general  principle. 

If  the  illuminating  radiation  strike  the  surface  of  a 
body  at  any  angle  of  inclination,  the  rays  not  extinguished 
in  the  body  will  slide  off  or  rebound,  and  still  pass  on  in 
their  turned  course,  notwithstanding  the  encounter,  and 
such  rays  are  said  to  be  reflected.  The  principles  of  motion 


THE   LAWS    OF   LIGHT.  297 

in  the  compounding  of  forces  determine  the  laws  of  reflec 
tion  necessarily  to  be  as  experience  always  finds  them  in 
fact,  viz.,  that  the  lines  of  incidence  and  reflection  are  of 
the  same  angle,  in  the  same  plane,  and  on  opposite  sides 
of  the  perpendicular  to  the  reflecting  surface.  Polished 
surfaces  reflect  with  the  least  extinction,  and  curved  sur 
faces,  reflecting  according  to  the  law  of  perpendicularity 
to  the  surface,  will  give  converging  or  diverging  rays  of 
all  varieties,  and  open  the  whole  field  of  optical  laws  in  the 
different  forms  of  mirrors. 

The  radiation  that  passes  through  a  transparent  sub 
stance  will  encounter  differences  of  resistance  in  propagat 
ing  the  vibrations  through  the  free  ether  and  through  the 
denser  body,  and  in  different  substances  the  resistances 
will  differ,  but  such  resistance  will  turn  the  ray  from  its 
continuous  right  line,  and  this  break  in  the  line  of  radiation 
is  called  refraction.  The  compounding  of  forces  in  the 
principle  of  motion  again  determines  the  laws  of  refraction 
to  be  as  the  facts  are  always  found,  viz.,  the  angles  of  inci 
dence  and  refraction  are  in  the  same  plane ;  and  the  angle 
of  refraction  is  the  same  in  all  cases  for  the  same  substance. 

A  polished  curved  surface  modifies  the  direction  of 
the  refracted  ray  according  to  the  curvature,  just  as  above 
in  reflection,  and  this  opens  the  field  of  optical  laws  for  all 
differently  formed  lenses.  The  different  refrangibility  in 
the  parts  of  the  same  lens  will  bring  some  rays  to  a  differ 
ent  focal  point  from  others,  and  this  scattering  of  the  rays 
away  from  one  common  focus  is  termed  aberration.  The 
correction  for  aberration  by  applying  another  substance  to 
the  lens  of  a  proportionally  compensating  degree  of  refran- 


298  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVEKSE. 

gibility  is  guided  by  the  same  necessary  law  as  that  which 
necessitates  the  inconvenience. 

A  succession  of  molecular  vibrations  in  a  right  line  out 
from  the  luminous  source  is  a  ray,  and  as  the  eye  must 
take  in  many  such  lines  of  molecular  vibration  at  each 
moment  of  vision,  the  combination  of  many  such  single 
lines  is  still  called  a  ray,  and  of  course  admits  of  an  analysis 
to  just  the  extent  that  single  lines  have  been  put  together 
in  synthesis.  We  have  thus  single  molecular  lines  of  light, 
and  combined  lines  of  indefinite  numbers  in  rays  of  light, 
and  many  such  rays  combined  are  a  learn  of  light.  A 
prismatic  medium  receives  on  the  incident  surface  a  variety 
of  rays  in  all  their  differences  of  vibration,  both  in  rapidity, 
and  in  breadth  of  prolate  and  oblate  expansion.  Their  dif 
ferent  refrangibility  must  be  determined  by  their  difference 
of  vibration,  and  the  reaction  of  the  prismatic  medium 
upon  them  in  both  its  angular  expansion  of  surface  and 
inherent  substance.  These  rays  will  thus  come  out  from 
the  emergent  surface  separated  and  distinguished  according 
to  this  difference  of  refrangibility.  The  slowest  and  longest 
vibrations  will  have  been  the  least  refracted,  and  the  quick 
est  and  shortest  the  most  refracted,  and  if  these  prismatic 
rays  be  now  received  upon  an  even  surface,  they  will  range 
themselves  according  to  this  discriminated  variety  of  vibra 
tion,  the  slowest  and  longest  the  nearest  to  the  edge  that 
gives  the  refracting  angle,  and  the  quickest  and  shortest 
away  from  it,  and  the  proportionally  refrangible  rays  filling 
their  proper  places  in  the  space  between.  This  illuminated 
space  is  known  as  the  prismatic  spectrum,  and  the  principle 
of  diremptive  action  determines,  in  the  conditions,  the  law 
of  the  spectrum,  viz.,  an  oblong  illumination  with  its  dis- 


THE   LAWS    OF   LIGHT.  299 

criminated  vibrations,  and  in  this  its  colors.  The  lower 
extreme  is  red,  and  the  upper  is  violet,  and  from  the  red  up 
to  the  violet  are  the  orange,  yellow,  green,  blue  and  indigo. 
The  analysis  can  be  carried  no  further,  for  another  pris 
matic  refraction  makes  no  more  separations.  Two  blended 
colors,  as  the  yellow  and  green  into  a  blue,  may  stand  over 
against  a  primary  prismatic  blue  of  the  same  intensity,  and 
the  prism  will  decompose  the  first  but  leave  the  last  un 
changed.  By  the  interference  of  vibrations  their  lengths 
and  rapidity  may  be  calculated.  The  transverse  vibrations 
are  for  violet  about  170  ten-millionth  parts  of  an  inch,  and 
for  red  about  260  ditto.  The  number  of  vibrations  pro 
gressively  in  an  inch  are  for  violet  about  58,000,  and  for 
red  about  38,000.  The  number  of  vibrations  in  a  second 
are,  for  violet  about  700  billions,  and  for  red  about  450 
billions.  This  rapidity  of  vibration,  though  inconceivable 
in  detail,  is  quite  comprehensible  in  the  general  principle. 
The  diremptive  action  is  from  the  centre  of  the  luminous 
sphere  out  every  way  in  the  equatorial  plane,  and  thus 
across  each  hemispherical  layer.  In  crossing  each  layer 
its  oscillation  must  give  vibration  to  each  molecule  it  pos 
sesses,  and  the  equatorial  plane  being  always  a  plenum,  the 
central  pulsation  must  be  felt  at  once  to  the  circumference 
and  thus  through  all  the  layers  that  the  equatorial  plane 
crosses,  and  which  would  be  instantaneous  but  for  the 
elastic  compressibility.  The  rapidity  of  propagated  mole 
cular  vibrations  is  therefore  only  so  much  less  than  instan 
taneous,  as  the  plenum  of  luminous  ether  is  successively 
compressible. 

The  prismatic  spectrum,  thus  wholly  according  to  the 
determination  of  the  great  principle  of  the  light-force,  gives 


300  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

also  a  chromatic  aberration  from  necessary  laws,  when  the 
rays  of  the  spectrum  pass  through  a  lens.  Not  only  is  the 
lens  differently  refrangible  from  peculiarity  of  curvature 
and  substance,  but  each  color  of  the  spectrum  is  also  differ 
ent  in  refrangibility,  and  must  make  its  dispersions  in  the 
focal  divergency,  and  also  on  the  colored  plane.  One  color 
will  take  a  different  position  from  another,  and  all  images 
must  thus  be  confused  within  and  fringed  without,  except 
as  corrected. 

When  two  luminous  sources  have  their  spheres  in  such 
a  way  as  to  cut  each  other,  the  lines  of  molecular  vibration 
must  cross  and  thus  interact  upon  each  other.  Where 
these  vibrations  act  from  each  other  they  must  intensify, 
and  where  they  act  upon  each  other  they  must  neutralize 
the  vibrations.  Such  interaction  of  vibrations  gives  lumi 
nous  interference.  The  result  must  be  a  series  of  alternately 
intensified  and  obscured  light,  and  in  the  extremes,  bright 
light  alternating  with  total  darkness.  Many  peculiarly 
interesting  optical  phenomena  result  from  this  law  of  inter 
ference,  and  are  expounded  by  the  principle  which  deter 
mines  it. 

So  also,  if  rays  of  light  pass  the  edge  of  an  opaque  body, 
the  shadow  instead  of  being  exactly  defined  in  a  right  line, 
will  have  a  penumbra  in  a  diverging  pencil  from  the  edge 
of  the  body.  The  vibrating  molecules  in  their  radiation 
past  the  edge  are  reacted  upon  by  the  obstruction,  and  a 
new  circular  vibration  commences  in  it,  and  forms  itself 
about  it,  and  goes  on  enlarging  from  it,  as  would  outgoing 
waves  of  water  when  passing  the  edge  of  an  obstruction. 
This  diverging  penumbra  is  called  an  inflection  or  diffrac 
tion  of  light,  and  has  all  its  laws  determined  in  the  great 


THE   LAWS   OF    LIGHT.  301 

principle.  When  the  ray  of  light  passes  through  certain 
peculiar  crystalline  bodies,  in  a  certain  direction,  it  becomes 
entirely  divided,  one  part  passing  through  without  refrac 
tion,  and  is  called  hence  the  ordinary  ray,  the  other  part  is 
more  or  less  refracted  and  called  the  extraordinary  ray. 
As  the  prism  divided  the  ray  into  the  different  colors  of 
the  spectrum,  this  crystal  substance  divides  it  into  two 
rays,  homogeneous  in  color  but  distinct  in  planes  of  polari 
ty,  and  which  is  known  as  double  refraction,  and  which 
will  be  more  fully  explicable  from  what  follows. 

The  two  alternate  vibrations  prolate  and  oblate  of 
every  molecule,  by  the  diremptive  action,  give  occasion 
for  vision  and  color  from  each  of  the  double  movements. 
If  then,  any  arrangement  turn  the  molecular  vibration  on 
one  side,  and  the  ray  is  made  to  meet  the  eye  with  one 
vibration  veiled  and  lost  in  its  transverse  movement,  there 
will  be  but  the  two  sides  of  the  vibration  luminous,  and  the 
two  ends  will  be  in  darkness.  The  ray  being  thus  luminous 
only  in  two  opposite  sides  is  said  to  be  polarized.  This 
may  be  effected  by  so  turning  the  vibration  in  a  series  of 
refractions  and  reflections  in  two  mirrors  placed  to  each 
other  at  certain  angles ;  or  by  making  the  ray  pass  through 
certain  crystalline  substances  which  destroys  one  kind  of 
vibration  or  combines  both  in  one  ;  and  also  by  the  peculiar 
double-refraction  above  noticed.  In  the  last  case,  the  ordi 
nary  ray  has  one  plane  of  polarization,  and  the  extraordi 
nary  ray  another,  when  the  consequent  interferences  of 
vibration  between  them  darken  to  each  other  their  oppo 
site  neutralized  action.  If  then,  in  any  of  the  above  cases, 
the  ray  be  made  to  turn  itself  round,  by  means  of  a  revolv 
ing  mirror,  it  will  be  alternately  light  and  dark  on  opposite 


302  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

sides,  and  partially  luminous  in  the  places  between.  If  this 
double  refraction  be  made  to  occur  in  exceedingly  thin 
plates  of  crystal,  the  ordinary  and  extraordinary  rays  will 
be  somewhat  blended  by  their  lying  one  upon  the  other, 
and  their  passing  through  the  refracting  medium  at  differ 
ent  rates  of  velocity  will  bring  them  to  an  interference  of 
vibrations,  and  this,  with  their  opposite  planes  of  polarity, 
will  give  all  the  beautiful  and  wonderful  phenomena  of 
chromatic  polarized  light,  exhibited  in  some  experiments 
with  varied  axial  and  acute  prismatic  crystals. 

But  beside  these  facts  and  laws  of  light  itself,  there  are 
some  that  may  be  considered  as  determined  in  the  prin 
ciple  that  makes  the  central  bodies  of  the  systems  to  be 
luminiferous. 

The  facts  connected  with  the  changing  appearances  on 
the  face  of  the  sun  are  specially  of  this  description.  A 
careful  observation  of  the  sun  through  a  telescope  will 
ordinarily  discover  more  or  fewer  dark  or  colored  spots 
upon  the  sun's  disk,  and  these  spots  at  times  become  very 
numerous  and  very  large.  In  one  case,  by  mensuration 
and  calculation,  an  observed  spot  was  found  to  cover  a, 
space  on  the  sun's  disk  46,600  miles  long  and  27,960  miles 
broad.  They  have  a  determinate  region  on  the  face  of  the 
sun  where  they  appear,  and  are  not  found  within  an  equa 
torial  belt  that  may  be  imagined  like  the  torrid  zone  to 
encompass  the  sphere,  but  always  on  each  side  of  such  belt 
or  zone  for  a  considerable  distance,  and  then  beyond  these 
two  separate  belts  towards  the  polar  regions  the  spots 
again  do  not  appear.  They  are  of  all  shapes  and  sizes,  and 
at  times  have  a  very  dark  central  spot  with  a  surrounding 
region  of  blended  light  and  shade,  and  at  other  times  the 


OF  THE 
THE   LAWS    OF   LIGHT.  ff  U  IT  I  5&S!  K,  S  I  T  1 

whole  spot  is  partially  luminous,  and  though  cc^^erjaBly 
darker  than  the  main  face  of  the  sun,  is  still  of  a  lacted 
twilight  appearance.  The  darker  spots  evince  in  various 
ways  that  there  is  a  deep  opening  in  a  luminous  envelope 
about  the  body  of  the  sun,  and  that  this  opening  is  broad 
at  the  surface  and  shelving  down  its  sides  by  an  inclined 
slope  to  the  dark  bottom  on  the  body  of  the  sun  itself,  like 
an  immense  crater  of  a  volcano.  These  funnel-formed 
openings  often  rapidly  change  their  shapes,  and  sometimes 
streaks  of  light  stream  across  them  from  side  to  side,  and 
such  streaks  rapidly  augment  and  fill  up  again  the  whole 
opening.  Around  the  central  darkness  there  will  often  be 
found  branching  arms  that  run  out  from  its  margin  to  long 
distances  within  the  surrounding  illuminated  portions. 
Beside  these  positively  dark  spots,  the  contiguous  region 
often  appears  of  a  waving  or  mottled  aspect,  having  very 
irregularly  defined  outlines,  and  rather  as  a  veil  of  thicker 
and  thinner  light  thrown  over  broad  portions  of  the  sun's 
face.  The  luminous  matter  of  the  sun's  envelope  is  thus 
evidently  seen  to  be  a  moving  and  changeable  covering, 
sometimes  rarified  and  sometimes  completely  broken 
through  in  pretty  well  defined  regions,  and  other  portions 
of  the  sun  constantly  maintaining  their  brightness,  and 
over  which  the  luminous  envelope  is  never  ruffled  or 
broken.  Whatever  may  be  the  source  of  agitation  and 
disruption,  the  effects  only  appear  about  equi-distant  from, 
and  parallel  to,  the  equator  of  the  sun. 

These  facts  may  very  well  be  occasioned  by  the  manner 
in  which  we  have  found  the  diremptive  force  must  work  in 
throwing  a  luminous  atmosphere  about  the  central  suns  of 
systems.  The  pressure  of  gravity  in  the  surrounding  ethe- 


304:  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

real  matter,  in  which  the  diremptive  activity  is  so  balanced 
that  the  heat-force  is  latent,  disturbs  and  destroys  the  bal 
ance  and  forces  the  diremptive  activity  into  exercise,  and 
thus  the  latent  heat  becomes  manifested  heat.  The  di 
remptive  activity  is  against  the  solid  surface  of  the  sun, 
and  out  from  it  into  the  balanced  ether,  in  a  perpetual  dis 
parting  or  divellency  of  agency  that  renews  or  restores  the 
vibrations  which  had  ceased  from  the  equilibration  of 
forces.  This  renewed  radiation  of  the  vibrating  movement, 
intensified  by  all  the  force  of  gravity  that  is  induced  by  the 
quantity  of  matter  in  the  sun,  becomes  so  much  quicker 
and  sharper  that  it  rises  to  a  luminous  state,  and  is  heat 
elevated  to  light.  The  action  upon  the  sun  and  out 
through  all  the  surrounding  ether  must  be  according  to 
the  only  principle  of  diremptive  activity,  by  a  polar  and 
then  an  equatorial  movement  alternately,  and  thus  a  con 
tinual  oscillation  from  a  prolate  to  an  oblate  form  through 
all  the  successive  outlying  spherical  layers,  so  far  as  the 
radiations  shall  penetrate.  This  action  upon  the  superficial 
body  of  the  sun  in  its  rotation  must  accumulate  the  lumi 
nous  atmosphere  about  the  equatorial  region,  and  send  it 
oif  each  way  from  thence  toward  the  poles. 

When  then  we  conceive  of  this  luminous  atmosphere  as 
itself  an  imponderable  fluid,  and  working  off  into  the  sur 
rounding  ether  by  its  radiating  vibrations,  and  perpetually 
supplied  from  the  latent  portions  in  the  ethereal  mass  which 
its  gravity  is  constantly  pressing  up  to  the  sun's  surface,  it 
is  readily  seen  that  both  the  diremptive  activity  and  the 
sun's  rotation  conspire  to  induce  just  such  phenomena  as- 
these  solar  spots,  and  in  just  such  general  localities  on  the 
sun's  surface.  The  equatorial  portion  or  torrid  zone  of  the 


THE    LAWS    OF   LIGHT.  305 

sun  will  be  the  fullest  and  steadiest  supplied,  and  the  cur 
rents  sent  off  from  this  zone,  both  by  the  diremptive  force 
and  the  action  of  the  sun's  revolution,  must  necessarily  flow 
in  eddying  streams  out  into  the  two  temperate  zones  on 
opposite  sides,  and  might  be  expected  at  times  to  occasion 
there  just  such  partial  openings  and  deep  rents  and  gaps  in 
this  luminous  cover  of  the  sun,  as  we  find  actually  to  dis 
close  to  our  observation  more  or  less  of  the  solid  and  unra- 
diating  body  beneath  it.  Such  openings  in  the  illuminated 
covering  may  last  for  a  number  of  the  sun's  revolutions, 
and  thus  they  will  appear  to  move  over  the  sun's  disk,  dis 
appearing  from  one  limb  and  again  appearing  at  the  oppo 
site.  These  eddying  currents  must  spend  themselves  in 
these  zones,  leaving  the  polar  regions  perpetually  again 
undisturbed  and  luminous.  What  we  might  almost  pre 
dict,  we  may  pretty  safely  explain,  from  the  necessary 
circumstances. 

The  great  luminiferous  bodies  are  thus  the  central  suns 
of  the  separate  systems,  and  which  become  self-luminous 
stars  to  each  other,  while  the  planetary  bodies  and  their 
satellites  have  only  the  sun-light  radiated  upon  them  and 
reflected  from  them.  When  the  radiations  or  reflections 
are  cut  off,  the  planets  are  forthwith  opaque. 

But  there  are  many  other  though  far  smaller  sources 
of  light,  independent  of  all  irradiation  and  reflection,  than 
the  sun  of  our  system  and  the  distant  stars.  All  direct 
light  from  self-luminous  sources  may  be  conditionally 
reflected  or  refracted,  and  the  rays  revolved  so  as  to  hide 
by  turns  one  plane  of  the  vibrations,  and  thus  to  become 
polarized ;  but  reflected  planetary  rays  so  lose  the  regu 
larity  of  their  planes  of  vibration  that  they  cannot  become 


306  THE   NECESSABY   LAWS   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

polarized.  The  fluid  ether  and  the  solid  substances  of 
matter  have  much  diremptive  force  or  heat  combined,  or 
latent  within  them,  and  whatever  liberates  this  heat  and 
sets  it  again  in  free  action,  opens  anew  the  sources  of 
radiating  heat  and  light,  and  makes  the  dormant  to  become 
apparent.  This  is  done  in  many  ways.  The  violent  dissi 
pation  of  the  substance  in  combustion ;  the  rapid  destruc 
tion  of  the  substance  in  chemical  decomposition;  the  disso 
lutions  of  the  electric  and  galvanic  currents;  all  these 
liberate  the  confined  and  balanced  heat-and-light  forces, 
and  the  light  streams  forth  again  as  from  a  new  fountain. 
All  combustible  matter  is  such  on  account  of  its  compo 
nent  diremptive  forces,  and  the  combustion  that  sets  them 
free  induces  at  once  the  phenomenon  of  flame,  and  that 
matter  in  combustion  is  thus  luminiferous  with  the  primi 
tive  light  that  may  be  polarized.  Chemical  and  electrical 
light  are  alike  decompositions  and  thus  liberations  of  the 
primitive  diremptive  forces.  No  "portion  of  the  diremptive 
force,  that  has  ever  proceeded  from  the  great  universal 
centre,  has  gone  up  again  through  that  centre,  and  been 
received  as  pure  spiritual  activity  by  the  Absolute,  nor 
can  it  otherways  be  lost  in  any  outward  dissolutions  and 
annihilations.  All  light  and  heat  that  ever  was,  yet  is, 
and  wherever  bound  in  composition  with  other  forces, 
may  again  become  decomposed  and  free,  and  hence  new 
streams  of  light  may  be  made  anywhere  to  flash  out 
around  us.  All  matter,  it  may  be,  is  in  this  sense  lumini 
ferous,  that  it  holds  in  composition  something  of  the  light- 
force,  and  which  is  therefore  decomposable,  but  it  is  only 
while  the  passing  decomposition  goes  on,  and  the  freed 
force  makes  itself  to  appear,  that  we  call  the  body  light- 


THE  LAW  OF  CHEMICAL  FORCES.          307 

bearing  or  self-luminous.  The  burning  lamp,  the  light 
ning  flash,  or  the  slow  chemical  decomposition  of  putrid 
fish  or  rotten  wood  ;  all  are  so  many  instances  of  the  light- 
forces  which  had  ceased  to  shine  because  locked  in  compo 
sition  with  other  forces,  but  which  now  stream  forth  anew 
because  once  more  set  free  to  push  their  circling  vibrations 
through  every  point  about  them. 

The  fact  that  flame  is  fed  by  combustibles,  and  extin 
guished  by  non-combustibles,  has  its  law  in  this,  that  only 
as  the  decomposition  goes  on  can  the  light-force  be  liberat 
ed.  Water  is  the  great  extinguisher  of  flame  while  it  is 
itself  undecomposed  in  the  flame,  but  let  the  diremptive 
action  be  sufficiently  intense  to  decompose  the  water,  and 
it  will  add  the  diremptive  forces  in  its  own  substance  to 
the  flames,  and  make  them  to  glow  with  greatly  aug 
mented  brightness.  The  extinguisher  of  flame  becomes 
thus  fuel  to  the  flame,  so  soon  as  the  dormant  light-force 
in  itself  is  set  free  in  the  decomposition  of  its  own  sub 
stance.  In  the  same  way,  spontaneous  combustion  breaks 
out  in  new  flame,  when  some  chemical  decomposition  has 
let  loose  the  diremptive  forces  that  had  been  held  inactive 
by  superior  counter-agencies. 

8.  THE  LAW  OF  CHEMICAL  FORCES. — Matter  is  given 
to  us  in  masses ;  chemistry  analyzes  the  masses,  and  gives 
to  us  the  various  chemical  substances.  These  varied 
substances  when  further  analyzed,  are  reduced  to  some 
three-score  (61)  so  called  simple  substances,  because  the 
chemical  solvents  have  not  sufficed  to  carry  the  analysis 
any  higher.  These  simple  substances,  as  now  considered, 
may  be  indefinitely  diminished  by  further  more  successful 
decompositions.  But  how  many  soever  the  simple  sub- 


008  THE    NECESSARY    LAWS    OF    THE    UNIVERSE. 

stances  may  be  as  resisting  further  chemical  analysis,  the 
great  principle  of  all  chemical  synthesis  in  its  original 
combinations,  is  that  the  antagonist  and  diremptive  activ 
ities  are  the  only  simple  forces,  and  that  by  the  varied 
counter-working  of  these  upon  themselves,  in  direction, 
numbers,  and  energy  of  the  simple  molecular  forces,  the 
first  chemically  indecomposable  substances  are  formed. 
These  primitive  substances,  more  or  less,  are  then  chemi 
cally  combined  to  constitute  all  the  distinctive  compound 
substances  in  nature,  whether  earths,  metals,  or  gases. 
Not  at  all  that  dead  inert  atoms  are  brought  into  juxta 
position  by  some  assumed  forces,  the  atoms  being  the 
things  considered  and  the  forces  only  hypothetically  imag 
ined,  but  the  intelligently  apprehended  forces  both  make 
and  move  the  atoms,  and  thus  it  is  only  for  forces  that  a 
true  philosophy  has  any  interest. 

This  general  principle  of  the  combination  of  the  tAvo 
simple  forces  in  various  proportions  and  directions,  to 
constitute  what  has  been  improperly  understood  as  truly 
simple  chemical  substance,  has  determined  a  remarkable 
and  universal  law  of  the  action  of  chemical  affinity.  To 
mark  this  determining  principle  the  more  distinctly,  let 
it  be  noted  that  the  parting  from  any  given  substance  in 
composition,  and  coming  together  with  some  other  sub 
stance  in  combination,  is  known  as  chemical  affinity,  and 
the  degree  of  energy  with  which  the  separation  and  new 
combination  is  effected,  is  known  as  the  force  of  chemical 
affinity.  All  cases  of  complete  combination  of  the  liberated 
substances  give  what  is  known  as  the  definite  action  of 
chemical  affinity,  and  those  cases  where  one  substance  is 
only  dissolved  in  another,  and  there  continues  a  solution  but 


THE    LAW    OF    CHEMICAL    FORCES.  309 

no  completed  combination,  are  known  as  exhibiting  only 
an  indefinite  action  of  chemical  affinity.  The  law  above  re 
ferred  to  is,  that  in  all  cases  of  the  definite  action  of 
chemical  affinity,  heat  is  evolved. 

The  converse  law — that  in  all  cases  of  indefinite  ac 
tion  of  chemical  affinity,  cold  is  induced — has  nothing  that 
need  here  to  be  remarked,  as  its  determination  is  seen  in 
what  has  before  been  attained  in  the  latent  heat  of  fusion, 
and  of  evaporation.  Thus  when  the  solid  becomes  a  fluid, 
or  the  fluid  becomes  vapor,  from  the  force  of  heat,  much 
of  the  applied  heat-force  must  be  used  in  separating  and 
isolating  the  distinct  molecules,  and  as  just  balancing  and 
equilibrating  itself  with  the  molecular  forces  it  beomes 
fixed  and  is  insensible  or  latent  heat ;  but  as  taken  from 
other  surrounding  substances  and  thus  fixed,  it  has  induced 
sensible  cold,  or  the  absence  of  so  much  sensible  heat. 

But,  that  all  definite  action  of  chemical  affinity  evolves 
heat  is  of  much  significance,  as  being  determined  directly 
from  the  principle  of  the  combination  of  the  simple  antago 
nist  and  diremptive  forces  to  constitute  the  so  called  sim 
ple  chemical  substances.  As  an  example,  we  may  take 
1  Ib.  of  hydrogen  of  specific  heat  3.2936,  and  8  Ibs.  of 
oxygen  of  specific  heat  per  Ib.  0.2361,  and  the  compound 
will  be  a  watery  vapor  of  9  Ibs.,  with  specific  heat  per 
Ib.  0.8470.  The  mean  would  be— 

3.2936  +  8  X  0.2361 

=  0.5758. 

9 

The  difference  then  will  be  0.8470 — 0.5758=0,2712. 
This  amount  of  heat  evolved  in  the  combination  must 
have  come  from  its  liberation  out  of  the  simples  hydrogen 


310  THE   NECESSARY    LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

and  oxygen,  thereby  showing  them  not  to  be  truly  sim 
ples,  but  compounds  of  the  simple  forces. 

In  another  instance,  we  may  take  2  volumes  of  nitrogen 
and  1  volume  of  oxygen  condensed  to  nitrous  oxide  of  2 
volumes,  and  the  resolution  of  the  nitrous  oxide  should 
use  up  heat  thus  made  latent  and  thereby  induce  cold. 
But  instead  of  cold,  if  wood-charcoal  be  burned  in  the 
nitrous  oxide,  the  combustion  gives  19623  units  of  heat, 
and  burned  in  pure  oxygen  the  combustion  gives  14544 
units  of  heat.  The  nitrous  oxide  has  gained  this  excess 
of  heat  over  the  oxygen,  viz.  5079  units,  beyond  the  sensi 
ble  heat  that  must  have  been  lost  or  made  latent.  This 
can  only  have  come  from  its  liberation  in  what  is  termed 
the  chemically  simple  nitrogen. 

So  in  all  combustion,  the  dissolution  of  the  substances 
disengages  or  liberates  a  great  amount  of  heat,  without 
any  condensation  and  usually  with  a  large  expansion  of 
volume,  as  of  nitre  with  charcoal.  This  law  of  evolving 
heat  cannot  be  determined  from  the  setting  free  of  any 
latent  heat  of  fusion,  but  is  determined  only  in  the  prin 
ciple  that  the  really  simple  forces  are  combined  to  form 
the  so  called  chemically  simple  substances,  and  the  decom 
positions  of  the  chemical  atoms  themselves  in  combustion 
give  off  their  constituent  portion  of  the  heat-force. 

These  simple  substances  combine  and  form  their  various 
compounds,  and  in  the  combination  the  simple  substances 
so  change  their  action  that  the  compound  is  a  third  thing 
wholly  different  from  either  of  the  separate  ingredients. 
In  their  analysis  the  simple  substances  again  appear  and 
the  new  substance  as  a  compound  is  lost.  Thus  oxygen 
and  hydrogen,  brought  into  combination,  form  the  distinct 


THE    LAW    OF    CHEMICAL    FORCES.  311 

thing,  water;  and  hydrogen  and  nitrogen  combined  give 
ammonia.  An  analysis  of  sea-salt  gives  the  simples  chlorine 
and  sodium,  and  potash  analyzed  gives  oxygen  and  potas 
sium.  The  compounds  are  as  different  from  their  elements 
as  these  elements  are  different  from  each  other.  Nothing, 
in  fact,  is  truly  a  definite  combination  that  does  not  result 
in  a  new  third  substance.  The  affinity  of  salt  and  water 
acts  only  indefinitely  in  securing  a  solution  but  no  combina 
tion.  The  salt  and  the  water  still  remain  in  their  un 
changed  substance,  and  no  third  thing  is  given.  The 
atmosphere,  which  contains  21  parts  oxygen  and  79  parts 
hydrogen  is  still  rather  a  conjunction  than  a  combination 
of  the  elements,  and  the  action  of  the  amnity  is  indefinite, 
since  atmospheric  air  is  not  a  new  definite  substance.  The 
primal  forces  which,  in  their  modified  working,  con 
stitute  the  chemically  simple  substances,  change  their 
working,  and  as  above  seen  some  of  the  diremptive  force 
or  heat  is  liberated,  in  their  combination  into  a  new  sub 
stance. 

And  still  further,  the  principle  of  antagonist  and  di 
remptive  activities  is  seen  in  determining  the  laws  of 
chemical  combination,  in  that  not  only  must  there  be  defi 
nite  affinities,  but  these  affinities  must  always  be  in  specific 
proportions  of  the  simple  substances.  The  forces  cannot 
blend  and  stand  to  each  other  as  static  equivalents  except 
in  certain  specific  degrees  of  relative  energy,  and  such  sim 
ples  in  such  proportions  are  known  as  chemical  equivalents. 
The  quantity  in  energy  of  molecular  force,  or  as  the  same 
thing,  of  weight,  is  thus  always,  in  chemical  combinations 
where  the  simple  substances  may  produce  more  than  one 
distinct  compound,  in  one  of  the  two  following  ratios  of 


312  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

the  first  substance  to  the  second,  viz.,  1:1  1:2  1:3  1:4, 
&c. ;  or,  1  :  3  1:5  1:7  &c.  Some  of  these  chemical  equiv 
alents  are  as  follows  :  Hydrogen  1 ;  Carbon  6  ;  Oxygen  8  ; 
Nitrogen  14;  Chlorine  35,50;  Mercury  203. 

Thus,  hydrogen  and  oxygen  combine  in  two  propor 
tions,  and  in  each  form  their  definite  substance.  1  hy. : 
8  ox.=water.  1  hy.  :  16  ox.=deutoxide  of  hydrogen. 
Nitrogen  and  oxygen  unite  in  five  compounds,  and  all  in 
their  relative  proportions  only,  viz.  14  nit. :  8  ox.=protoxide 
of  nit.,  or  laughing  gas;  14  nit. :  16  ox.=deutoxide  nit.; 
14  nit. :  24  ox.=hyponitrous  acid;  14  nit. :  32  ox.=nitrous 
acid;  and  14  nit. :  40  ox.=nitric  acid,  or  aquafortis.  The 
same  weight,  or  force,  in  nitrogen  is  to  the  weight  or  force 
of  oxygen  in  these  definite  affinities  respectively  a  chemical 
equivalent  as  14  :  8  :  16  :  24  :  32  :  40.  Carbon  and  oxygen 
again  have  two  compounds,  viz.,  6  :  8=carbonic  oxide ;  and 
6  : 16=carbonic  acid.  Mercury  and  chlorine  have  also  two 
compounds,  viz.  203  :  35,50=calomile ;  and  203  :  71=corro- 
sive  sublimate. 

The  necessity  for  this  universal  law  in  chemical  equiva 
lents  is  seen  in  the  great  principle  of  the  working  of  heat  in 
the  primitive  ether.  Where  it  only  separates  the  ethereal 
molecules  and  perpetually  forces  itself  in  among  them,  it 
makes  the  whole  a  fluid  mass  ultimately  so  comparatively 
dense  that  the  new  diremptive  current  coming  in  drives 
the  old  before  it,  and  the  chaotic  matter  is  wheeled  into 
worlds  and  systems.  These  primitive  forces  then  combine, 
in  what  are  chemically  simple  substances,  by  such  propor 
tions  of  energy  as  are  indicated  in  the  chemical  equivalents, 
they  respectively  possess ;  and  such  proportions  of  energy 
in  combination  constitute  the  chemical  molecule,  or  atom, 


THE   LAW   OF   CHEMICAL   FOECES.  313 

and  these  so-called  simple  chemical  atoms  combine,  accord 
ing  to  their  affinities  and  equivalents,  and  form  the  many 
chemically  compound  substances.  The  separate  working 
of  both  antagonist  and  diremptive  forces  in  the  simple 
chemical  atoms  determines  that  the  atomic  combina 
tions  must  be  in  their  definite  ratios,  and  that  all  such 
atomic  combinations  must  liberate  heat  from  the  modifica 
tion  of  the  atoms  themselves. 

The  aggregation  of  the  chemical  atoms  in  masses  gives 
material  bodies  of  such  homogeneous  or  mixed  matter  as 
the  nature  of  the  atoms  determines,  and  while  the  force  of 
heat  has  been  put  in  combination  with  the  primitive  ether 
in  various  ratios  to  constitute  the  chemical  atom,  and 
which  heat  in  combination  is  insensible,  there  is  also  in  all 
such  material  bodies  more  or  less  heat  between  the  chemi 
cal  atoms,  which  in  its  diremptive  working  keeps  them 
apart,  and  this  is  sensible  heat.  The  more  heat  diffused 
the  more  the  body  is  expanded,  and  the  more  the  heat  is 
abstracted  the  smaller  the  volume  of  matter  becomes.  If 
the  substance  be  in  a  fluid  state,  the  cooling  process  con 
tracts  the  volume  proportionally  till  the  abstraction  reaches 
and  begins  to  exhaust  the  latent  heat  of  fusion  which 
isolates  the  atoms  and  keeps  the  mass  fluid,  and  in  the 
exhaustion  of  this  the  chemical  atoms  compact  themselves 
by  a  centripetal  pressure,  and  usually  the  fluid  suddenly 
contracts  greatly  in  volume  and  the  whole  is  solidified. 
The  amount  of  latent  heat  of  fusion  differs  widely  in  differ 
ent  substances,  according  to  the  proportions  necessary  to 
isolate  and  make  fluid  the  chemical  atoms.  Thus  zinc  is 
49,43  units  while  lead  is  but  9,27  units,  and  therefore  the 
shorter  process  of  solidifying  in  melted  lead  than  in  zinc. 


314  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

The  amount  of  latent  heat  in  water  is  as  much  as  is  needed 
to  raise  its  own  quantity  by  weight  through  142°  65  Far., 
and  which  in  its  excess  makes  freezing  water  so  gradual  in 
the  process  of  solidifying.  In  the  same  matter,  the  time 
for  liquefying  and  solidifying  is  alike,  for  the  same  amount 
of  latent  heat  is  given  and  taken  away. 

9.  THE  LAWS  OF  CRYSTALLINE  FORCES. — Fluid  matter 
on  cooling  to  a  less  or  greater  degree  in  most  cases  sud 
denly  becomes  solid,  and  the  solid  body  takes  on  the  form 
occasioned  by  gravity  or  pressure.  But  in  the  case  of 
some  matter,  fluid  or  held  in  solution,  there  is  a  sudden 
solidification  which  takes  on  its  peculiar  form  wholly  irre 
spective  of  gravitation  or  any  external  compression.  If 
salt  or  alum  be  dissolved  in  water,  the  evaporation  of  the 
water,  or  the  immersion  of  some  solid  substance,  brings  the 
dissolved  ingredients  to  a  solid  state,  having  peculiar 
mathematical  forms  of  regular  edges  and  surfaces  and  solid 
angles,  and  we  term  the  process  of  such  solidifying  crystal 
lization.  The  crystals  for  the  same  salt,  or  other  solution, 
have  always  the  same  form  in  edges,  sides  and  solid  angles. 
Even  if  an  already  formed  crystal  be  broken  in  fragments 
of  divers  shapes,  and  these  be  so  introduced  as  to  become 
the  nuclei  for  further  adhering  crystallizations  upon  their 
own  substance,  all  the  fragments  will  at  once  accumulate 
upon  themselves  an  augmented  crystallization  of  the  same 
old  form  as  the  unbroken  crystal  had  presented. 

These  forms  which  different  substances  take  on  in  crys 
tallization  are  some  dozen  geometrical  solids,  and  which 
may  be  classified  into  six  different  kinds,  constituting  a 
complete  system  of  crystallography.  If  one  take  up  any 
philosophical  treatise  on  crystallography,  as  Draper,  or 


THE  LAWS  OF  CRYSTALLINE  FORCES.       315 

more  elaborate  and  complete,  as  Dana,  he  will  have  all  the 
forms  given  in  regular  diagrams,  and  ranged  under  the  fol 
lowing  systems  determined  by  the  peculiarity  of  their  axes. 
The  axis  is  a  line  imagined  to  be  drawn  through  the  centre 
of  the  crystal,  and  around  which  all  its  parts  are  symmetri 
cally  disposed.  There  will  be  a  number  of  such  axes  in  all 
crystals,  and  according  to  the  difference  of  geometrical 
form  will  be  the  difference  in  the  number,  comparative 
length  and  direction  of  the  axes.  The  modification  of  the 
axes  is  thus  the  basis  of  classification  in  crystallography. 

There  is,  1st.  The  Regular,  or  Monometric  system; 
having  three  equal  axes  at  right  angles  to  each  other ;  and 
containing  the  three  geometrical  solids  of  the  cube,  the 
regular  octahedron  and  the  dodecahedron.  2d.  The 
Square  Prismatic  or  Dimetric  system;  having  three  axes 
intersecting  each  other  at  right  angles,  and  the  vertical  of 
unequal  length  to  the  two  equal  lateral  axes ;  and  contain 
ing  the  two  solids  of  the  right  square  prism  and  the  right 
square  octahedron,  each  having  two  varieties  of  axes,  one 
terminating  in  the  centre  of  the  sides  and  the  other  in  the 
middle  of  the  edges.  3d.  The  Right  Prismatic  or  Trimetric 
system,  having  three  axes  of  unequal  lengths  and  right 
angled  intersections,  containing  the  right  rectangular 
prism,  right  rhombic  prism,  and  the  right  rectangular 
based  and  the  right  rhombic  based  octahedron.  4th.  The 
Oblique  Prismatic  or  Monoclinic  system,  having  three  axes 
all  unequal,  two  intersecting  at  right-angles  and  the  third 
oblique  to  one  and  at  right-angles  to  the  other,  and  con 
taining  the  oblique  rectangular  and  oblique  rhombic  prisms, 
and  the  oblique  rectangular  based  and  the  oblique  rhombic 
based  octahedrons.  5th.  The  Doubly  Oblique  Prismatic  or 


316  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

Triclinic  system,  having  three  axes  all  unequal  and  all  with 
oblique  intersections,  containing  the  two  varieties  of  the 
doubly  oblique  prisms,  and  of  the  doubly  oblique  octahe 
drons.  6th.  The  Rhombohedral  or  Hexagonal  system, 
having  four  axes,  three  of  which  are  equal  in  the  same 
plane  and  intersect  at  an  angle  of  60°,  and  the  fourth  or 
principal  axis  perpendicular  to  all  the  others,  containing  the 
hexagonal  prism  and  the  rhombohedron. 

These  may  sometimes  be  imperfect  on  one  side  or  even 
wholly  wanting,  and  are  thus  hemihedral ;  and  sometimes 
the  same  substance  may  be  in  double  or  twin  crystals  and 
be  paragenic,  if  originally  so  formed,  or  metagenic,  if  so 
formed  after  the  commencement  of  crystallization ;  and  also 
the  same  substance,  from  difference  of  temperature  or  other 
cause,  may  crystallize  in  two  kinds,  and  run  into  two  sys 
tems,  and  be  thus  dimorphous.  There  may  also  be  some 
times  the  meeting  of  opposite  faces  and  thus  the  turning  of 
the  axes  in  opposite  directions,  which  will  give  to  the  crystal 
a  knee-shaped  or  geniculated  form ;  but  ordinarily  the  same 
substance  crystallizes  in  the  same  form. 

Now,  if  we  consider  the  combinations  of  the  antagonist 
and  diremptive  forces  in  the  chemical  molecules  when  pass 
ing  from  the  fused  or  liquid  state  to  the  solid,  to  change 
their  activities  according  to  their  modified  substances  into 
the  directions  of  these  intersecting  axes,  we  shall  have  so 
many  varied  forces,  and  which  must  each  one  build  up  its 
own  crystalline  form  according  to  the  axial  direction  and 
degree  of  energy.  The  cube  will  necessarily  be  engendered 
by  a  perpetual  working,  each  way  from  the  salient  nucleus, 
of  a  force  equally  antagonizing  in  the  direction  of  the  right- 
angled  intersection  of  the  three  axes  in  the  first  system;  or 


THE  LAWS  OF  CRYSTALLINE  FORCES.        317 

if  it  regularly  dimmish  in  action  in  the  direction  of  the  two 
horizontal  axes  and  continue  constant  in  the  perpendicular 
axis,  it  must  build  up  the  regular  octahedron,  of  the  first 
system ;  or  if  it  regularly  diminish  its  action  in  the  direc 
tion  of  all  the  axes,  it  will  continually  cut  off  the  twelve 
edges  of  the  cube  and  necessarily  ultimately  complete  the 
dodecahedron  of  the  first  system.  And  so,  by  a  change  in 
the  action  in  the  working  force,  according  to  the  direction 
of  the  axes,  and  in  regularly  modified  degrees,  every  form 
in  all  the  six  systems  will  necessarily  be  engendered  from 
the  central  point  or  nucleus.  The  forces  will  determine  the 
forms  of  the  crystal,  and  at  each  point  will  constitute  the 
space-filling  molecule,  and  thus  be  both  molecule  and  gene 
rating  crystalline  force  in  one.  The  supposition  of  dead 
atoms  of  different  shape  and  specific  attractions  is  both 
superfluous  and  contradictory,  for  the  passive  atom  is  help 
less  without  the  generating  force  and  wholly  useless  with 
the  generating  force ;  such  force  truly  doing  all  the  work, 
and  constituting  all  the  substance  of  the  completed  crystal. 
And  still  further,  this  method  of  generating  the  crystals 
must  determine  also  the  laws  of  cleavage.  Crystals  are 
more  or  less  easily  split  into  their  Iamina3  that  lie  one 
above  another,  and  between  which  there  has  been  in  the 
generation  of  the  crystal  a  separating  or  discontinuing  of 
the  substance.  The  general  integrity  of  the  mass  is  thus 
in  certain  planes  interrupted,  and  one  leaf  lies  disparted 
from  another.  The  facts  are  that  in  the  same  species  of 
crystal,  the  cleavage  gives  the  same  forms  and  angles. 
The  lines  of  cleavage  are  parallel  to  each  other.  Similar 
forces  cleave  from  each  other  with  equal  readiness.  The 
cleavage  of  similar  planes  has  the  like  polish  or  lustre. 


THE   NECESSARY    LAWS    OF   THE    UNIVEKSE. 

Such  facts  are  all  in  full  accordance  with  the  idea  of  crys- 
tallogeny,  for  as  the  forces  successively  range  their  atoms 
in  faces  that  must  be  determined  by  the  order  of  working 
in  and  from  the  axes,  so  the  successive  accumulations  of 
the  matter  arranged  by  the  forces  must  be  superimposed 
upon  itself,  layer  after  layer,  in  the  same  direction,  and  the 
equal  action  in  generating  each  layer  will  make  both  their 
separations  and  surfaces  and  polish,  or  otherwise,  to  be 
similar  each  to  each.  Crystals  must,  therefore,  have  a 
cleavage  in  several  different  directions,  in  some  of  which 
the  separation  will  be  more  readily  made  than  in  others, 
but  always  in  the  same  directions  will  be  of  the  same  gen 
eral  characteristics.  The  determining  force  of  generation 
must  determine  also  the  cleavage. 

But  the  determining  principle  carries  us  very  much 
further  in  reading  the  necessity  for  the  laws  in  crystallo 
graphy,  and  even  forces  to  a  consilience  within  the  law 
some  phenomena  hitherto  held  to  be  quite  anomalous. 

In  ordinary  solidification  usually  the  matter  suddenly 
and  largely  contracts  on  the  abstraction  of  the  latent 
heat  effusion.  ,  Mercury  especially  suddenly  solidifies  at — 
38°  8  Far.,  the  column  in  the  tube  of  the  thermometer 
sinking  into  a  solid  far  down  within  the  bulb.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  all  crystalline  solidifications  expand,  and  some 
very  greatly  at  the  moment  of  crystallization.  Water 
particularly  expands  in  congelation  to  about  one-seventh 
of  its  own  bulk.  The  method  and  progress  of  expansion 
is  very  peculiarly  marked.  From  any  point  of  tempera 
ture  above,  on  the  abstraction  of  heat,  it  contracts  regu 
larly  till  it  reaches  38°  8,  remaining  about  stationary  for 
1°  or  2°,  and  then  on  further  loss  of  heat  regularly  ex- 


THE  LAWS  OF  CRYSTALLINE  FORCES.        319 

Danding  till  it  comes  to  32°,  when  commonly  congelation 
occurs,  and  the  expansion  to  one-seventh  of  the  volume 
immediately  succeeds.  Very  careful  cooling  without  agi 
tation  may  delay  congelation  down  to  22°  or  even  lower, 
and  the  regular  expansion  goes  on;  but  on  congelation 
from  a  lower  point  than  32°,  the  temperature  at  once 
rises  to  32°,  and  the  expansion  in  congelation  is  so  much 
less  at  the  lower  degree  as  had  been  gained  in  the  passage 
from  32°  to  it,  so  that  the  whole  expansion  in  congelation 
is  the  same  one-seventh  in  all  cases. 

Now,  why  do  crystals  expand,  when  all  ordinary  solid 
ification  contracts  the  volume  of  matter?  The  natural 
conclusion  might  be,  that  on  this  abstraction  of  the  large 
amount  of  latent  heat  there  would  follow  a  large  degree 
of  diminished  volume.  The  beneficial  results  of  expansion 
in  crystallization  are  of  very  great  moment.  The  escap 
ing  of  such  an  amount  of  latent  heat  gradually,  and  giving 
it  free  and  sensibly  in  the  surrounding  fluid,  makes  freez 
ing  to  be  a  gradual  process,  giving  warning  and  time  for 
any  needed  precautions.  And  then  this  large  expansion 
forces  the  congelation  to  the  surface  and  throws  the 
evolved  latent  heat  into  the  water  below,  and  thus  preserves 
the  streams  and  lakes  from  entire  solidity.  But  has  the 
benevolent  end  been  reached  arbitrarily,  without  or  against 
an  immutable  principle?  The  grand  idea  of  diremptive 
activity,  as  we  have  attained  it,  enables  us  to  see  that  the 
principle  determining  this  law  of  the  crystal,  is  as  eternal 
as  that  which  has  conditioned  any  other  law  of  nature. 
The  benevolence  is  seen  not  in  violating  principle  and 
making  arbitrary  laws,  but  in  applying  principles  intelli 
gently,  and  putting  the  right  law  in  the  right  place ;  filling 


320  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE    UNIVERSE. 

the  streams  and  lakes  with  a  fluid  that  crystallizes,  and  not 
with  melted  oils  or  metals  that  condense  in  solidifying. 

The  large  quantity  of  latent  heat  in  water  secures  the 
slow  process  of  congelation  by  its  gradual  liberation,  and 
as  that  only  sufficed  to  just  isolate  the  chemical  atoms, 
and  give  occasion  for  a  mutual  flowing  of  each  over  the 
others,  thus  making  the  mass  a  liquid,  without  decompos 
ing  the  chemical  atoms  of  either  the  oxygen  or  the  hydro 
gen,  or  dissipating  them  in  a  vapor,  so  the  evolving  of  this 
heat  has  not  given  any  occasion  for  contraction  as  its 
latent  presence  gave  no  occasion  for  expansion.  It  held 
itself  just  balanced  in  the  midst  of  and  around  the  atoms, 
but  did  not  crowd  nor  dilate  them.  These  chemical 
atoms,  however,  of  1  part  hydrogen  and  8  parts  oxygen, 
have  their  own  natures  from  the  forces  which  compose 
them,  and  which  must  conform  to  the  laws  that  the 
great  principle  of  their  constituent  antagonist  and  diremp- 
tive  forces  has  put  within  them,  and  so  soon  as  the  latent 
heat  that  liquefies  them  is  withdrawn,  they  must  act  upon 
each  other  in  such  compensating  affinities  as  shall  turn 
their  direction,  and  form  their  axes,  and  push  out  their 
atoms  to  the  cleaving  surfaces  of  their  peculiar  geometrical 
solid.  If  their  polar  direction  had  been  simply  in  one 
axis,  as  in  the  mere  antagonist-working,  they  would  have 
hardened  directly  in  towards  the  centre  like  the  solidify 
ing  of  uncrystallized  bodies,  but  now  they  have  their  many 
poles  and  axes,  and  they  must  harden  in  the  direction  of 
their  corresponding  plane  surfaces  and  solid  angles  and 
edges.  A  consolidation  towards  a  central  point  must  con 
tract  the  volume  of  the  mass,  from  the  nature  of  the  case, 
since  it  is  an  ensphering  process,  and  the  bringing  of  every 


THE   LAWS   OF   CRYSTALLINE   FORCES.  321 

chemical  molecule  to  stand  together  with  its  fellows  in  the 
least  possible  space.  Such  solidifying  must  secure  con 
traction  of  volume  in  the  escaping  of  the  latent  heat-suf 
fusion. 

But  the  crystal  hardens  in  geometrical  solids,  and  the 
polyhedron  must  have  more  space  for  the  collocation  of 
the  same  atoms,  and  the  varied  surfaces  with  their  lines 
of  cleavage  must  lessen  the  density  and  enlarge  the  bulk, 
and  thus  the  crystal  cannot  take  on  its  solid  form  without 
more  or  less  dilatation,  and  the  amount  of  expansion  will  be 
determined  from  the  form  and  structure  of  the  solid  and  the 
force  of  the  polar  activities.     When  the  cooling  has  reach- 
0  8,  the  latent  heat  begins  so  to  pass  from  its  neu 
tralization,  that  the  intrinsic  polar  activity  may  also  begin 
its  agency,  and  though  the  fluid  state  maintains  its  mo- 
bility  till  32°  and  lower,  yet  will  the  polar  adjustment  to 
gether  with  the  waking  but  not  yet  escaping  heat,  begin 
their  dilatation,  and  only  finish  the  one  whole  work  when 
they  have  carried  the  fluid  to  its  complete  congelation. 

The  same  principle,  partially  carried  out  in  a  sub-crys 
tallization,  must  determine  the  solidification  in  cooling  of 
cast-iron,  bismuth,  antimony,  and  some  of  the  aUoys,  as 
bell-metal,  which  may  take  shape  from  a  mould  in  casting, 
since  there  is  a  small  expansion  in  cooling,  while  most 
metals  contract  and  shrink  from  the  mould  in  coming  to 
their  solid  state.    Where  there  is  a  multipolar  pressure  in 
solidifying  there  must  be  enlargement,  and  where  there  is 
only  uniaxial  action  and  thus  spherical  concentration  there 
t  be  diminution  of  volume.    There  may  be  the  widest 
fferences  in  the  points  of  temperature  where  solidification 
takes  place;  this  will  determine  nothing  in  dilatation  and 
21 


322  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

contraction.  Mercury  congeals  at  38°  8 ;  spirits  of  alcohol 
at  152° ;  and  English  wrought-iron  is  still  solid  at  2912°, 
and  platinum  at  3082°,  and  though  carbon  must  have  been 
fused  to  harden  in  the  diamond,  yet  does  this  crystal  main 
tain  its  solid  state  against  the  highest  heat  that  can  be  arti 
ficially  applied.  Not  the  point  of  melting,  but  the  forces 
that  interact  in  cooling,  determine  both  the  fact  and  the 
form  of  the  crystallization,  and  the  fact  and  the  degree  of 
dilatation.  The  principle  of  diremptive  action  necessitates 
the  laws  of  all  crystallology. 

10.  THE  LAWS  OF  WOELD-STSTEMS  IN  THEIR  ARRANGE 
MENT  AND  MOVEMENT. — As  the  stars,  which  may  be  as 
sumed  to  be  the  suns  of  other  systems,  are  seen  from  our 
terrestrial  stand-point,  they  appear  of  varying  magnitudes, 
and  the  numbers  increase  as  the  magnitudes  diminish.  If 
it  be  taken  as  a  general  fact  that  the  smaller  are  the  more 
distant,  it  will  be  readily  apprehended  how  two  stars  of 
unequal  magnitude  may  often  appear  as  joined  one  to  the 
other,  and  thus  presenting  the  phenomena  of  double-stars. 
But  as  lying  in  nearly  the  same  line  of  vision,  and  only  ap 
pearing  in  contact,  or  nearly  so,  while  one  is  at  a  vast 
remove  beyond  the  other,  such  cases  give  double-stars  only 
as  apparent,  and  the  two  bodies  have  really  no  special  con 
nection  one  with  the  other.  More  than  6,000  such  ap 
parent  double-stars  have  been  observed,  including  both 
hemispheres,  but  they  have  nothing  remarkable  in  them 
selves  more  than  any  stars  of  the  same  unequal  distances, 
except  as  these  happen  to  lie  in  nearly  the  same  lines  from 
our  point  of  observation. 

But  there  are  double-stars  that  are  not  only  found  ap 
parently  joined  in  two  contiguous  beams  of  light,  they  also 


THE   LAWS    OF   WOKLD-SYSTEMS.  323 

gradually  and  regularly  vary  their  mutual  positions,  and 
thus  manifest  that  they  are  physically  connected  in  some 
common  centre  of  gravity,  and  may  be  known  as  physically 
double-stars.  More  than  650  such  physically  double-stars 
have  been  observed,  having  a  relative  motion  with  each 
other,  and  not  merely  in  relation  to  other  stars  by  parallax 
of  our  or  their  change  of  position.  Of  these,  16  have  had 
the  elements  of  their  orbits  determined,  and  some  have 
completed  more  than  one  revolution  since  their  discovery, 
and  have  even  presented  the  striking  phenomenon  of  one 
so-called  fixed  star  in  occupation  by  another.  Their  peri 
ods  of  revolution  are  found  to  differ  very  largely,  from  30 
years  to  630  years.  Their  immense  distances,  and  especial 
ly  their  shining  by  their  own  and  not  by  reflected  light, 
inasmuch  as  their  light  may  be  polarized,  determine  them 
to  be  true  stars  and  not  any  cases  of  planetary  revolution. 

Now,  the  laws  of  such  double-stars,  revolving  the  less 
about  the  greater,  or  both  about  a  common  centre,  are 
readily  determinate  from  the  principle  of  their  construc 
tion  as  given  in  Chapter  II.  Sec.  16.  They  were  produced 
by  the  parting  of  one  stream  of  the  diremptive  force,  turn 
ing  one  part  about  the  other,  and  the  motion  thus  given 
:s  velocity  must  continue  constant  in  their  subsequent 
condensing  and  throwing  off  their  planets  if  they  have 
them.  Their  difference  of  gravity,  and  propagation  of 
their  radiating  vibrations  through  each  other's  ethereal 
spheres,  account  for  the  changes  of  color  so  remarkably 
observable  in  them. 

But  inasmuch  as  the  worlds  which  compose  the  solar 
system  are  comparatively  near  to  each  other,  and  within 
the  reach  mostly  of  distinct  telescopic  observation,  it  may 


324:  THE    NECESSARY    LAWS    OF    THE    UNIVERSE. 

well  be  supposed  that  the  opportunity  must  here  be  afford 
ed  for  furnishing  the  greatest  number  of  instances  where 
the  determining  principle  and  the  thence  determined  law 
shall  come  into  full  accordance.      Our  solar  system  can 
alone  come  within  our  observation,  for  its  planets  and  their 
satellites  are  the  only  ones  that  can  be  reached  by  the 
power  of  any  glasses  yet  invented.    The  fixed  stars  are  as 
so  many  single  and  solitary  worlds,  with  the  comparatively 
few  cases  of  known  double-stars  as  above,  which  have  their 
own  relative  motions,  and  it  is  only  from  analogy  that  we 
conclude  that  any  of  the  millions  of  fixed  stars  are  also  suns 
with  their  revolving  planetary  worlds  about  them.    The 
principle  of  the  formation  of  world-systems  induces  the  ex 
pectation,  that  the  diremptive  force  will  be  sufficient,  in  the 
vast  majority  of  cases,  to  occasion  an  excess  of  tangential 
or  revolving  force  above  the  adhesive  or  gravitating  force, 
and  in  consequence  to  drive  off  successive  planetary  masses ; 
but  the  facts,  if  such  there  be,  come  within  our  experience 
only  in  our  solar  system.     We  shall  here,  however,  find 
many  conformities  of  determining  principle  and  determined 
law,  and  which  must  have  equal  validity  in  all  analogous 
cases. 

When  the  volume  and  the  mass  of  any  world  is  deter 
mined,  dividing  the  mass  by  the  volume  will  give  the 
density  of  the  matter  contained ;  and  in  the  bodies  of  our 
system  there  is  a  general  though  not  an  exact  and  uniform 
increase  of  density  in  the  matter  of  the  worlds,  from  the 
exterior  to  the  interior  bodies.  Taking  the  density  of 
water  as  the  common  standard  of  measurement,  we  have 
the  specific  densities  of  the  planets  successively  as  fol 
lows  : — 


THE   LAWS    OF   WOELD-SYSTEMS.  325 

Neptune,     0,97  Mars,  5,39 

Uranus,       0,97  Earth,  5,66 

Saturn,       0,68  Venus,  5,22 

Jupiter,       1,36  Mercury,  19,56 
Sun,  1,47. 

The  primitive  sphere  from  which  these  planets  were 
successively  expelled  must  in  its  early  constitution  have 
had  its  specific  density  determined  through  and  through  by 
the  principle  of  gravity,  making  the  superficial  density  pro 
portioned  to  the  central  in  the  ratio  inversely  as  the  squares 
of  the  distances.  When  the  planets  were  thrown  off  in 
succession,  though  circumstances  may  have  somewhat 
modified  this  primitive  ratio  of  densities,  yet  it  is  not  proba 
ble  that  any  great  changes  were  wrought  in  the  ratios  of 
the  densities  from  time  to  time  as  the  planets  were  expelled 
from  the  diminishing  circumferences.  If  they  had  con 
densed  and  hardened  equally,  there  would  doubtless  have 
been  perpetually  a  very  exact  uniformity  in  the  ratio  of 
their  specific  densities.  But  the  difference  of  chemical  ele 
mentary  forces  and  their  ultimate  combination,  incident  to 
the  positions  in  the  primitive  sphere  and  the  times  of  expul 
sion,  and  the  different  gravities  and  radiations  of  heat  and 
light  under  which  the  successive  planets  respectively  cooled 
and  settled  down  to  their  present  volumes,  must  have 
induced  considerable  disturbances  and  derangements  in 
the  appropriate  ratios  of  specific  density.  We  need  not 
wonder,  therefore,  when  we  find  Saturn  a  little  less  dense 
than  either  Uranus  or  Neptune,  and  Venus  a  little  less 
dense  than  the  Earth,  and  Mercury  so  rapidly  gaining  in 
density  upon  Venus.  The  general  augmentation  is  deter 
mined  in  the  great  principle  of  the  ratio  of  gravity  in  the 


326  THE   NECESSAKY   LAWS    OF   THE   IJNIVEBSE. 

primitive  sphere,  and  the  interruptions  in  the  uniformity 
have  been  occasioned  by  the  interference  of  the  contingent 
modifying  influences.  The  control  of  the  determining  prin 
ciple  of  gravity  in  the  primitive  sphere  over  the  specific 
densities  of  the  planets  has  been  as  constant  and  full  as 
should  have  been  anticipated. 

The  greatest  departure  from  uniformity  in  augmenting 
density  is  found  in  the  sun  itself.  As  the  great  central 
body,  its  position  should  make  its  matter  specifically  the 
most  dense  of  all,  but  in  fact  it  is  found  far  less  dense  than 
Mercury,  and  only  about  the  consistency  of  Jupiter,  as 
ordinarily  estimated.  Here  is  so  wide  a  departure  from 
the  proposed  determining  principle,  that  if  we  could  not 
find  any  corrections  for  the  common  calculation  of  the  sun's 
density,  and  good  reasons  for  this  comparatively  diminished 
solidity  in  its  matter,  we  should  be  obliged  to  leave  the 
undue  rarity  of  the  sun's  substance  as  an  utter  anomaly. 
But  we  have  already  found  from  the  openings  in  the  solar 
spots  that  the  sun  has  a  luminous  atmosphere  of  several 
thousand  miles'  thickness,  and  if  this  deep,  imponderable 
superficies  were  subtracted  from  the  received  volume  of  the 
sun  before  the  division  of  the  mass  by  it,  it  would  make  a 
very  great  augmentation  of  determined  density.  Add  to 
this  the  certainty,  that  both  from  its  immense  bulk  and 
from  its  deep  surroundings  by  an  atmosphere  of  heat  and 
light,  the  inner  fires  of  the  sun's  body  must  be  more  in 
tense,  and  the  cooling  process,  if  progressing  at  all,  must 
be  far  slower  than  that  of  any  planet,  and  the  specific 
density  of  the  sun  will  thereby  be  brought  fully  up  to  the 
point  that  the  great  determining  principle  of  gravity  in  the 
primitive  sphere  would  demand  for  it. 


THE   LAWS    OF   WORLD-SYSTEMS.  327 

The  generally  augmenting  densities  of  the  worlds  in  our 
planetary  system  is  as  the  principle  of  gravity  necessitates, 
and  the  partial  interruptions  are  the  necessary  results  from 
the  apprehended  interfering  circumstances. 

There  is,  moreover,  a  very  marked  gradation  in  the 
interplanetary  spaces,  making  a  pretty  regular  diminution 
in  breadth  from  the  superior  space  between  Neptune  and 
Uranus  down  to  that  between  Venus  and  IVlercury,  or  that 
between  Mercury  and  the  sun.  These  distances  deter 
mined  by  the  distances  of  the  respective  planets  from  the 
sun  between  which  they  occur  may  be  found  as  follows — 
estimated  in  round  millions  of  miles: 

Neptune,  2854                     Interplanetary  spaces. 

Uranus,  1822  =  1032 

Saturn,  906  =  916 

Jupiter,  494  =  412 

Juno,  254  =  240 

Mars,  144  =  110 

Earth,  95  =  49 

Venus,  68  =  27 

Mercury,  37  =  31 

This  marked  gradation,  very  nearly  duplicate  in  most 
cases,  was  very  early  observed,  and  long  since  different 
arrangements  and  appliances  have  been  tried,  to  make  the 
approach  towards  duplicate  ratios  of  the  interplanetary 
spaces  to  take  on  a  more  exact  proportion.  Kepler  knew 
only  of  the  V  planets  from  the  sun  to  Saturn,  one  of  which 
was  lost,  or  wanting  between  Mars  and  Jupiter ;  and  he 
tried  to  find  some  mathematical  explanation  for  so  regular 
an  augmentation  of  their  distances  by  interposing  different 


330  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS   OF   THE   UNIVEESE. 

the  gravitating  force  remain  constant  after  the  ejection 
of  the  planet,  undisturbed  by  any  interfering  influences  as 
in  the  case  of  planetary  densities  and  planetary  distances, 
so  the  facts  have  here  the  exactness  and  universality  of  an 
unhindered  determining  principle,  and  therefore  an  inva 
riable   and  unbroken  law.       That   the   satellites  revolve 
about  their  primaries  in  the  same  ratio  of  the  cube  of  the 
distance  and  the  square  of  the  periodic  time  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  has  been  determined  in  this,  that  the  satellites  were 
ejected  from  their  rotating  primaries  in  their  ensphered 
state,  and  thus  necessitating  the   cubes  of  the  distances, 
and  not  the  mere  sum  of  the  units,  as  would  have  been 
necessary  in  the  ejection  from  the  end  of  a  line,  or  the 
square  of  the  distances  if  the  ejection  had  been  from  the 
circumference  of  a  circle.      The  same  facts  in  the  solar, 
terrene,  jovian,  satin-man  and    uranian  systems,  have  their 
necessary  law  in  the  third  principle  of  planetary  revolution. 
The  satellites  revolve  but  do  not  rotate.    An  excess  of 
rotation  over  adhesion  or  gravity,  may  very  well  occur  to 
so  great  a  degree  in  the  original  revolving  mass  as  to  give 
to   some  of   the    planets   a  force    of  ejection   that   shall 
secure  their  rotation  not  only,  but  so  as  also  to  throw  off 
one  or  more  satellites;   but  it  can  hardly  be  anticipated 
that  the  satellites  shall  have  such  a  force  of  ejection  as  to 
secure  their  rotation,  and  much  less  that  a  rotation  shall 
be  sufficiently  rapid  to  throw  off  sub-satellites.     And  the 
facts  are,  that  not  only  is  no  satellite  found  with  a  sub- 
satellite,    but   no    satellite  is  found  to  rotate  on  its  own 
axis  in  its  revolution  about  its  primary.     The  moon,  it  is 
well  known,  keeps  the  same  face   to  the  earth  through 
ah1  revolutions,  with  the  exception  of  certain  slight  libra- 


THE   LAWS   OF   WOKLD-SYSTEMS.  331 

tions  clearly  conditioned  by  two  or  three  separate  consid 
erations.  As  the  principle  determines,  the  matter  of  the 
moon  was  just  thrown  beyond  and  separate  from  the 
matter  of  the  planet,  and  while  the  revolution  and  rotation 
of  the  planet  were  conditioned  by  the  tangential  force  of 
revolution  in  the  great  spherical  mass,  the  revolution  of 
the  moon  around  the  earth  was  conditioned  by  the  force 
which  was  in  the  planets'  rotation,  and  which  was  only 
sufficient  to  overcome  the  cohesion,  but  not  to  secure  rota 
tion.  The  moon,  thus  barely  separated,  keeps  on  its  rate 
of  revolution  as  if  it  had  remained  still  in  the  circumference 
of  the  earth's  mass  of  matter,  as  it  was  just  preceding  its 
first  disruption,  and  thus  perpetually  revolves  about  the 
earth  at  that  constant  rate,  while  the  matter  of  the  earth 
rolls  and  condenses  itself  to  a  ball  of  continually  more 
rapid  rotations  beneath  it.  The  moon,  thus,  having  no 
rotation,  and  therefore  no  balancing  upon  its  own  axis, 
cannot  revolve  as  the  earth  in  its  rotations  does,  with  an 
axis  always  parallel  to  its  former  positions  in  the  orbit, 
but  with  its  centre  bound  to  the  earth's  centre  as  if  it  were 
still  held  by  the  radius  of  its  old  first  revolution.  It  thus 
keeps  constantly  the  same  hemisphere  to  the  earth,  and  as 
if  its  old  radius  was  a  cord  attached  at  opposite  ends  to  the 
centres  of  the  two  bodies,  the  moon's  one  face  thereby 
necessarily  turns  to  every  portion  of  the  earth's  surface 
with  each  revolution. 

The  same  conformity  with  the  principle  is  found  in  the 
facts  of  the  very  slight  eccentricity  of  the  moon's  orbit, 
and  the  absence  of  all  flattening  at  the  poles.  If  the  moon 
had  been  ejected  from  its  primary  with  sufficient  force  to 
rotate,  it  must  have  been  considerably  elliptical  in  its 


332  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVEBSE. 

orbit ;  and  if  it  had  rotated  on  its  axis,  it  must  have  been 
oblate  proportioned  to  the  rapidity  of  rotation.  The  facts 
all  correspond  to  the  determinations  of  the  rational  prin 
ciple. 

And  not  only  with  the  moon,  but  the  same  accordance 
of  principle  and  law  is  found  also  with  the  satellites  of  all 
the  planets,  so  far  as  any  discoveries  of  facts  have  been 
made.  Sir  William  Herschel  has  found  satisfactory  indica 
tions,  in  his  most  accurate  observations,  that  the  moons 
of  Jupiter  have  only  the  same  enlightened  hemispheres  to 
the  planet ;  and  the  largest  satellite  of  Saturn  is  also  found 
to  have  a  variation  of  apparent  brightness  in  different 
parts  of  its  orbit,  and  that  the  same  brightness  always 
corresponds  to  the  same  position  on  the  surface  of  Saturn 
in  the  revolutions  of  the  satellite  about  it.  This  general 
law  of  the  satellites,  that  they  constantly  turn  one  face  to 
their  primary,  has  been  sometimes  accounted  for  by  sup 
posing  that  one  hemisphere  of  the  satellite  is  protruded 
towards  its  planet,  and  thus  held  in  place  by  an  excess  of 
gravity  in  the  protruding  part ;  but  no  fact  of  such  pro 
tuberance  appears,  and  the  true  principle  determines  the 
facts  as  they  are  given,  without  any  such  gratuitous 
hypothesis. 

So,  moreover,  in  the  planes  of  the  orbits,  and  the 
direction  of  revolution,  we  have  the  same  remarkable 
accordance  of  fact  and  determining  principle.  The  great 
revolving  sphere  of  which  the  system  is  to  be  constituted, 
must  throw  off  its  planets  and  satellites  successively,  and 
the  great  central  force  will  keep  this  wheeling  sphere 
revolving  in  one  general  direction  through  all  the  process. 
The  outermost  or  earliest  planet  will  be  thrown  off  in  the 


THE   LAWS   OF   WOKLD-SYSTEMS. 

same  general  direction  as  the  innermost  and  last  formed, 
and  thus  the  courses  in  their  orbits  will  be  direct,  and  not 
retrograde.  At  the  same  time  the  modifications  of  the 
central  current  will  very  probably  secure  some  oscillation 
of  the  wheeling  sphere  on  its  own  centre,  and  thus  the 
equatorial  plane  must  have  some  changes  of  direction. 
This  would  necessitate  corresponding  varieties  in  the 
planes  of  the  planetary  orbits,  and  while  all  cannot  be 
expected  to  be  formed  in  the  same  plane,  the  general  uni 
formity  of  the  revolving-force  will  not  admit  of  very  wide 
varieties. 

The  facts  are,  that  all  the  planets  move  in  one  direction 
in  their  orbits,  or  from  west  to  east  as  viewed  relatively  to 
the  terrestrial  axis,  and  all  the  planes  of  the  planetary 
orbits  are  inclined  somewhat  to  each  other,  but  still  within 
very  limited  degrees.     No  two  are  parallel,  nor  exactly  in 
the  same  plane,  and  the  widest  extremes,  aside  from  the 
planetoids,  do  not  vary  but  about  7  degrees.    Taking  the 
sun's  equator  as  the  present  fixed  plane,  we  shall  find  a 
pretty  uniform  oscillation  from  planet  to  planet,  till  we  get 
to  Mercury,  and  which  suddenly  drops  into  very  near  con 
formity  with  the  plane  of  the  sun's  revolution.    The  oscil 
lations    are  little    removed   from    one    degree    between 
the  successive  planets  till  we  come  to  the  earth,  which 
between  Mars  and  Venus   oscillates   from  two  to  three 
degrees.    Thus— 

Neptune, 5°  43'  00" 

Uranus, 6°  43'  32" 

Saturn, 5°  00'  25" 

Jupiter, 6°  11'  09" 

Mars, 5°  38'  54" 


332  THE    NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

orbit ;  and  if  it  had  rotated  on  its  axis,  it  must  have  been 
oblate  proportioned  to  the  rapidity  of  rotation.  The  facts 
all  correspond  to  the  determinations  of  the  rational  prin 
ciple. 

And  not  only  with  the  moon,  but  the  same  accordance 
of  principle  and  law  is  found  also  with  the  satellites  of  all 
the  planets,  so  far  as  any  discoveries  of  facts  have  been 
made.  Sir  William  Herschel  has  found  satisfactory  indica 
tions,  in  his  most  accurate  observations,  that  the  moons 
of  Jupiter  have  only  the  same  enlightened  hemispheres  to 
the  planet ;  and  the  largest  satellite  of  Saturn  is  also  found 
to  have  a  variation  of  apparent  brightness  in  different 
parts  of  its  orbit,  and  that  the  same  brightness  always 
corresponds  to  the  same  position  on  the  surface  of  Saturn 
in  the  revolutions  of  the  satellite  about  it.  This  general 
law  of  the  satellites,  that  they  constantly  turn  one  face  to 
their  primary,  has  been  sometimes  accounted  for  by  sup 
posing  that  one  hemisphere  of  the  satellite  is  protruded 
towards  its  planet,  and  thus  held  in  place  by  an  excess  of 
gravity  in  the  protruding  part ;  but  no  fact  of  such  pro 
tuberance  appears,  and  the  true  principle  determines  the 
facts  as  they  are  given,  without  any  such  gratuitous 
hypothesis. 

So,  moreover,  in  the  planes  of  the  orbits,  and  the 
direction  of  revolution,  we  have  the  same  remarkable 
accordance  of  fact  and  determining  principle.  The  great 
revolving  sphere  of  which  the  system  is  to  be  constituted, 
must  throw  off  its  planets  and  satellites  successively,  and 
the  great  central  force  will  keep  this  wheeling  sphere 
revolving  in  one  general  direction  through  all  the  process. 
The  outermost  or  earliest  planet  will  be  thrown  off  in  the 


THE   LAWS   OF   WOKLD-SYSTEMS. 


333 


same  general  direction  as  the  innermost  and  last  formed, 
and  thus  the  courses  in  their  orbits  will  be  direct,  and  not 
retrograde.  At  the  same  time  the  modifications  of  the 
central  current  will  very  probably  secure  some  oscillation 
of  the  wheeling  sphere  on  its  own  centre,  and  thus  the 
equatorial  plane  must  have  some  changes  of  direction. 
This  would  necessitate  corresponding  varieties  in  the 
planes  of  the  planetary  orbits,  and  while  all  cannot  be 
expected  to  be  formed  in  the  same  plane,  the  general  uni 
formity  of  the  revolving-force  will  not  admit  of  very  wide 

varieties. 

The  facts  are,  that  all  the  planets  move  in  one  direction 
in  their  orbits,  or  from  west  to  east  as  viewed  relatively  to 
the  terrestrial  axis,  and  all  the  planes  of  the  planetary 
orbits  are  inclined  somewhat  to  each  other,  but  still  within 
very  limited  degrees.     No  two  are  parallel,  nor  exactly  in 
the  same  plane,  and  the  widest  extremes,  aside  from  the 
planetoids,  do  not  vary  but  about  7  degrees.    Taking  the 
sun's  equator  as  the  present  fixed  plane,  we  shall  find  a 
pretty  uniform  oscillation  from  planet  to  planet,  till  we  get 
to  Mercury,  and  which  suddenly  drops  into  very  near  con 
formity  with  the  plane  of  the  sun's  revolution.     The  oscil 
lations    are  little    removed   from    one    degree    between 
the  successive  planets  till  we  come  to  the  earth,  which 
between  Mars  and  Venus   oscillates   from  two  to  three 
degrees.    Thus — 

Neptune, 5°  43'  00" 

Uranus, 6°  43'  32" 

Saturn, 5°  00'  25" 

Jupiter, 6°  11'  09" 

Mars, 5°  38'  54" 


THE   NECESSARY   LAWS   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

Earth, 7°  30'  00" 

Venus, 4°  06'  32" 

Mercury, 0°  29'  55" 

Sun, 0°  00'  00" 

But  when  we  take  the  planes  of  the  orbits  of  the  satel 
lites,  we  have,  as  we  might  anticipate,  much  wider 
extremes ;  and  both  in  the  extremes  of  orbital  planes,  and 
more  especially  of  direction  of  revolution,  we  have  really 
an  astonishing  conformity  of  fact  and  principle.  The  great 
wheeling  sphere  of  matter  must  revolve  on  pretty  uniform 
ly,  and  the  slight  oscillations  can  occasion  but  little  in 
clinations  of  the  planes  of  the  planetary  orbits,  and  no 
retrogradations  apparent  in  the  course  of  the  planetary 
revolutions.  But  when  the  planet  is  ejected,  many  oppor 
tunities  for  modifying  causes  occur.  The  rotation  of  the 
planetary  matter  must  conform  in  its  axis,  to  the  compo 
sition  of  the  ejecting  force  which  throws  the  matter  for 
ward  and  the  attracting  force  of  gravity  bringing  the 
matter  backward,  and  thus  wrapping  the  upper  portion 
over  the  lower ;  and  according  to  the  equal  density  of  the 
matter,  and  the  directness  of  the  ejecting  force,  must  be 
the  regularity  of  the  axis  of  rotation.  Exact  equality  of 
density,  and  precise  projection  of  revolving  force,  would 
secure  the  rotary  axis  of  the  planet  directly  parallel  to  the 
axis  of  the  principal  sphere,  but  any  inequality  of  density 
in  the  matter  to  be  thrown  off  at  the  circumference  must 
give  to  the  projecting  force  a  modified  direction,  and  turn 
the  impulse,  and  thus  the  direction  of  the  ejected  matter, 
more  from  one  side  of  the  equatorial  plane  than  from  the 
other.  If  the  denser  matter  be  on  one  side  of  the  equato 
rial  plane,  the  tendency  will  be  to  throw  the  matter 


THE   LAWS   OF   WOKLD-SYSTEMS.  335 

towards  the  other  side,  and  the  axis  of  rotation  must  be 
directed  accordingly ;  and  thus  it  may  be,  that  while  the 
general  tendency  is  toward  an  axis  across  and  perpendicu 
lar  to  the  plane  of  the  planetary  orbit,  specific  cases  may 
give  the  axis  of  rotation  nearly  in  the  plane  of  the  orbit. 
A  very  dense  lump  on  one  side  of  the  ejected  mass  might 
turn  the  axis  of  rotation  to  be  almost  like  the  rifle  ball,  or 
near  90°  from  its  regular  direction  perpendicular  to  the 
plane  of  the  orbit.     The  rotation  must,  therefore,  be  in  the 
direction  of  the  projecting  force,  and  necessarily  direct  and 
not  retrograde,  and  yet  the  axis  of  rotation  in  one  planet 
may  very  well  so  be  turned  in  inclination  towards  that  of 
another  planet,  that  the  satellites  of  one  may  appear  to  have 
a  retrograde  movement  when  viewed  from  the  other.    And 
so  the  facts  really  are  found  to  be  in  our  own  solar  system. 
Mercury  is  too  near  the  sun,  and  too  perpetually  within 
its  strong  light,  to  determine  its  rotation  by  any  observa 
tion.    Venus  can  be  known  to  rotate  from  the  different 
appearances  of  the  cusps  or  horns  while  passing  through  its 
illuminated  changes,  but  the  direction  of  its  axis  has  not 
yet  been,  and  perhaps  may  never  be,  determined.     So  far 
as  we  have  the  determination  of  the  direction  of  the  planet 
ary  axes,  either  by  direct  calculation,  or  by  deduction  from 
the  general  plane  of  the  orbits  of  their  satellites,  they  may 
be  given  as  follows,  in  the  degrees  of  their  inclination  to 
their  own  orbits  respectively : — 

The  Earth, 66°  32' 

Mars, 61°  18' 

Jupiter, 86°  54' 

Saturn, 115°  41' 

Uranus,                168°  13' 


336 


THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVEESE. 


Inclination  of  axes  to 
the  ecliptic. 

Inclination  of  axes  to 
the  earth's  axis. 

66°   32' 

00°  00' 

88°  13' 

21°  41' 

118°  11' 

51°  39' 

168°  58' 

102°  26' 

Leaving  Mars,  which  has  no  satellite,  and  estimating 
the  above  in  reference  to  the  ecliptic  or  the  earth's  orbit, 
and  also  in  reference  to  the  earth's  axis,  we  shall  have  the 
following : — 


The  Earth, 
Jupiter, 
Saturn, 
Uranus, 

If  we  consider  the  orbits  of  the  satellites  as  perpendicu 
lar  to  the  axes  of  their  primaries,  which  must  doubtless  be 
very  near  the  fact,  that  of  the  moon  inclining  a  little  more 
than  1°  30'  to  the  axis  of  the  earth,  we  should  have  the 
following   appearances   of  the    satellites   of  the   different 
planets  from  the  earth,  as  determined  by  the  principle  of 
the  necessary  revolutions  and  rotations  of  the  respective 
planets.     All  these  planets  must  move  in  their  orbits  in  the 
same  general  direction  as  the  earth,  for  they  are  succes 
sively  thrown  off  from  the  same  spherical  mass ;  and  this 
must  also  secure  that,  in  reference  to  their  own  orbital 
movements,  their  rotary  movements  must  also  be  in  the 
same  way  direct,  and  not  retrograde,  for  their  rotary  move 
ment  must  be  the  result  of  the  projectile  force  which  sepa 
rates  them  from  the  wheeling  sphere,  and  though  unequal 
densities  in  the  matter  may  greatly  modify  the  inclinations 
of  the  axes,  yet  must  the  rotations  on  the  axes  in  all  cases 
be  before  and  not  against  the  projectile  force.     In  the  case 
of  the  earth,  we  find  the  moon  moving  from  west  to  east  in 
her  revolution  about  the  earth,  and  thus  determining  that 
the  projectile  force  of  the  wheeling  sphere  was  in  that 


THE   LAWS    OF   WORLD-SYSTEMS.  337 

general  direction,  but  with  such  an  inequality  in  the  densi 
ty  of  the  matter  as  to  turn  the  axis  66°  32'  out  of  its  regu 
lar  perpendicular  position  to  the  earth's  orbit.  With  this 
direction  of  the  earth's  axis  for  our  north  point,  and  the 
rotation  of  the  earth,  and  thus  the  revolution  of  the  moon 
from  west  to  east,  and  making  the  earth  our  stand-point, 
we  must  find  Jupiter's  moons  also  moving  from  west  to 
east,  and  in  orbits  inclined  to  the  earth's  axis  of  generally 
68°  19',  thus  giving  only  a  profile  view,  somewhat  narrow, 
viz.,  21°  41',  to  the  Jovian  system,  from  our  earth.  The 
Saturnian  system  must  come  much  more  broadly  in  profile, 
for  its  inclination  of  the  orbits  of  its  moons  generally  must 
be  38°  21',  giving  a  face  of  51°  39'  to  the  view  from  the 
earth,  and  the  moons  still  moving  from  a  western  to  an 
eastern  direction,  for  their  orbits  are  still  above  or  west  of 
the  north  polar  point  of  the  earth's  axis. 

But  when  we  come  to  the  Uranian  system,  we  have 
the  orbits  of  its  moons  inclined  12°  26'  to  the  earth's 
axis  from  the  under  or  eastern  side,  so  that  the  face  has 
really  turned  itself  by  the  full  plane,  and  has  cast  itself  a 
little  in  profile  on  the  other  side,  viz.  77°  34'.  The  moons 
of  Uranus,  as  seen  from  the  earth,  though  really  moving 
in  the  general  direction  of  the  planet  itself  in  its  orbit, 
and  thus  truly  direct  and  not  retrograde,  must  yet  appear 
from  the  earth  to  be  moving  from  an  easterly  to  a  westerly 
direction.  The  axis  of  Uranus  is  11°  48'  turned  across 
the  plane  of  its  orbit,  and  must  therefore  rotate  in  the 
general  direction  of  the  projectile  force  from  its  orbit,  but 
because  the  axis  of  the  earth  is  more  than  90  degrees 
turned  from  the  axis  of  Uranus,  the  moons  of  Uranus  must 

from  the  earth  appear  to  move  in  a  westerly  direction 
22 


338  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

That  the  moons  of  Uranus  are  retrograde  has  been  a  sur 
prising  anomaly  from  its  first  discovery,  but  that  this  ex 
ceptional  fact  is  found  to  leap  within  the  necessary  deter 
minations  of  the  eternal  principle,  and  is  found  anomalous 
only  in  appearance,  the  principle  itself  expounding  why  it 
must  so  appear,  is  a  most  conclusive  example  of  that 
accordance  of  fact  and  principle,  which  is  alone  true 
science. 

The  marked  peculiarities  of  the  Planetoids  have  been 
matters  of  great  interest  and  wonder  from  the  earliest 
discovery  of  any  of  their  number.  The  wide  breach,  in 
the  pretty  nearly  duplicate  ratio  of  increase  in  the  inter 
planetary  spaces  from  the  centre  outwards,  which  occurs 
between  Mars  and  Jupiter,  had  been  very  extensively 
considered  by  astronomers  as  the  place  of  a  lost,  or  of  as 
yet  an  undiscovered  planet,  and  at  the  close  of  the  last 
century  much  interest  had  been  excited  to  extend  a  care 
ful  observation  over  all  this  region,  with  the  hope  of  find 
ing  such  missing  planet.  On  the  1st  of  January,  1801,  the 
Italian  Astronomer  Piazzi,  discovered  a  star  that  seemed 
by  the  next  evening  to  have  changed  its  place,  and  by  re 
peated  observations  during  the  month,  he  had  determined 
its  truly  planetary  character,  and  though  lost  in  the  sun's 
light,  it  had  again  been  found  after  emerging  on  the  other 
side  of  its  orbit,  and  was  determined  in  its  elements  and 
called  Ceres.  It  held  almost  exactly  the  right  position  for 
dividing  properly  the  space  between  Mars  and  Jupiter, 
but  was  exceedingly  minute  as  a  planet,  its  diameter  being 
only  about  160  miles.  In  March  of  the  following  year, 
Dr.  Olbers  discovered  Pallas,  having  nearly  the  same  mean 
distance  as  Ceres,  but  with  an  orbit  much  further  inclined 


THE   LAWS    OF   WORLD-SYSTEMS.  339 

from  the  ecliptic.  In  September,  1804,  Juno  was  discov 
ered,  and  in  March,  1807,  the  discovery  of  Yesta  followed, 
after  which  no  more  planetoids  were  found  until  1845, 
when  M.  Hencke  discovered  Hebe,  and  since  that  time  the 
search  has  been  so  diligently  and  successfully  pursued, 
that  in  1856,  forty  planetoids  had  been  found  and  their 
elements  calculated. 

These  small  bodies  all  revolve  within  a  limited  space 
between  Mars  and  Jupiter,  and  may  very  well  be  deemed 
as  filling  the  appropriate  place  of  one  planet.  Mars  is 
about  145,000,000  of  miles  and  Jupiter  about  494,000,000 
of  miles  from  the  sun,  and  these  planetoids  range  between 
209,000,000  miles  and  300,000,000  miles  in  mean  distances 
from  the  sun,  thus  occupying  about  90,000,000  of  the  349,- 
000,000  miles  of  this  interplanetary  space,  and  in  the  pro 
per  ratio  nearer  to  Mars  to  conform  to  the  general  ratio 
of  the  other  interplanetary  distances.  The  largest  of  these 
bodies  cannot  be  more  than  500  miles  in  diameter,  and 
the  smallest  may  not  be  50  miles,  so  that  the  aggregate 
of  all  the  asteroids  yet  discovered,  would  make  but  a  small 
planetary  body  if  united.  While  thus  occupying  the  space 
due  to  one  planet,  and  together  conforming  to  the  general 
conditions  of  the  planetary  bodies,  yet  are  there  some 
pretty  wide  differences  among  themselves,  and  some  mark 
ed  peculiarities  from  other  planets. 

Their  orbits,  though  elliptical,  yet  widely  differ  in 
amount  of  eccentricity  from  each  other,  and  the  least 
eccentric  is  still  more  elliptical  than  any  of  the  planets, 
except  Mercury  and  Mars,  while  the  most  elliptical  about 
doubles  the  eccentricity  of  Mercury.  Their  inclination  to 
the  eclliptic,  in  their  orbits,  is  also  of  a  much  wider  rano-e 


340  THE    NECESSAKY    LAWS    OF   THE    UNIVEKSE. 

than  in  the  case  of  the  planets.  They  all  He  on  one  side 
.of  the  earth's  orbit  towards  the  sun,  but  there  are  23  be 
tween  the  ecliptic  and  the  plane  of  the  sun's  equator,  and 
17  beyond  the  plane  of  the  sun's  equator.  The  nearest  to 
the  ecliptic  is  Massalia,  0°  50'  16",  and  the  furthest  inclined 
from  the  ecliptic  is  Pallas,  34°  37'  20".  Their  longitudes 
of  ascending  nodes,  or  the  lines  in  which  their  orbital 
planes  cut  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic,  are  widely  extended ; 
Fides  being  about  8°  and  Atalanta  about  359°.  Their 
difference  in  longitude  of  perihelion  puts  also  their  direc 
tions  of  their  major  axes  all  around  the  sun,  the  least  being 
that  of  Lcetitia  about  1°,  and  the  largest  being  that  of 
Polymnia  about  341°.  Their  movements  in  their  orbits 
conform  to  the  planetary  principle  that  the  cube  of  the 
mean  distance  is  as  the  square  of  the  periodic  time,  and 
thus  the  most  distant  has  the  least  velocity  in  its  orbit. 
Flora  is  the  least  distant  from  the  sun,  whose  semi-axis  of 
orbit  is  to  that  of  the  earth  as  2,2017,  and  its  daily  motion 
1086",  and  its  sidereal  period  1193  days;  while  Euphrosyne 
has  a  comparative  semi-axis  of  orbit  with  the  earth  of 
3,156,  and  a  daily  movement  of  633",  and  a  sidereal  period 
of  2048  days.  Their  movements  are  all  direct  in  their 
orbits,  and  all  their  general  conformities  with  the  planets 
are  determined  in  the  same  principle  as  that  which  gives 
to  them  their  universal  law.  But  their  peculiarities,  so 
widely  distinguishing  them  from  all  the  regular  planets, 
have  hitherto  been  brought  under  no  determining  prin 
ciple,  and  subjected  to  no  known  laws.  Their  small 
masses,  their  widely  extended  degrees  of  inclination,  lon 
gitudes  of  ascending  node,  and  longitudes  of  perihelion, 


THE   LAWS   OF   WORLD-SYSTEMS.  341 

with  their  great  differences  of  eccentricity,  are  considered 
as  yet  wholly  anomalous. 

But  the  immediate  circumstances  in  the  formation  of 
the  planetoids,  when  fully  considered,  will  fairly  bring  all 
their  peculiarities  under  the  determination  of  the  one 
great  principle  that  has  ruled  in  all  the  planetary  consti- 
tutions.  When  the  great  planet  Jupiter,  whose  mass  is 
more  than  338  times  that  of  the  earth,  had  been  just 
thrown  off,  its  attraction  upon  the  wheeling  sphere  be 
neath,  and  from  which  it  had  just  parted,  necessarily  put 
that  sphere  in  a  peculiar  position  for  the  formation  of  its 
next  equatorial  accumulations.  Without  here  considering 
how  the  action  of  Saturn  would  necessarily,  if  in  conjunc 
tion  with  that  of  Uranus,  tend  to  the  ejection  of  so  large 
a  mass  as  Jupiter,  the  insight  into  the  action  of  such  a 
mass  as  Jupiter  gives  just  the  conditions  necessary  for 
forming  the  planetoids.  As  the  primal  sphere  was  revolv 
ing  under  so  large  an  attracting  body  as  Jupiter,  which 
yet  might  not  have  condensed  much  within  the  orbit  of  its 
outermost  satellite,  this  sphere  must  have  had  its  equa 
torial  accumulations  thereby  hastened,  and  the  general 
equatorial  protuberance  induced  by  the  revolution  and 
hastened  by  Jupiter's  attraction  must  also  by  this  attrac 
tion  have  been  considerably  disturbed,  and  drawn  from  an 
equable  equatorial  diffusion  over  the  surface  to  a  rising  tide 
directly  under  this  large  planet.  The  same  attraction  that 
made  the  tide  on  the  side  next  to  Jupiter  must  also  have 
lightened  the  antagonism  at  the  centre  of  the  sphere,  and 
thus  just  balanced  the  pressure  upon  the  opposite  hemi 
sphere,  and  therefore  raised  simultaneously  an  equal  tide 
upon  the  side  of  the  sphere  opposite  to  Jupiter. 


342  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS   OF   THE   TJNIVEESE. 

In  such  a  state,  the  rotating  sphere  could  not  hold  on 
and  retain  its  equatorial  accumulations,  until  the  tangential 
force  should  bring  all  into  the  equatorial  ring  and  expel  all 
in  a  mass,  but  as  the  accumulation  had  become  considera 
ble  in  the  equatorial  region,  and  Jupiter's  attraction  had 
brought  up  a  tide  beneath,  so  the  tangential  force  must  first 
have  caught  the  crest  of  that  tidal  wave  and  expelled  it  from 
the  main  sphere,  and  Euphrosyne  the  outermost  planetoid 
was  thus  driven  upon  its  separate  revolution.  The  same 
attraction  above,  and  the  same  tidal  wave  and  revolution 
beneath,  anon  threw  off  Hygeia,  and  then  Themis,  and 
Leucothea,  and  so  onward  in  successive  instalments  till 
we  reach  Flora,  the  last  and  least  distant  from  the  sun  of 
any  that  has  been  yet  found,  and  the  balancing  relief  was 
gained  as  if  all  had  been  expelled  in  one  planet,  until  the 
ordinary  accumulation  again  returned  with  no  progressing 
attraction  for  a  flowing  tidal  wave,  and  Mars  was  made  a 
regular  though  smaller  planet.  The  accumulation  and 
tide  must  have  made  the  first  planetoid  exclusion  untimely 
early,  and  the  last  untimely  late,  and  hence  the  width  of 
the  planetoid  orbital  region,  and  hence  also  the  dispropor- 
tioned  smallness  of  Mars. 

As  Jupiter  passed  on  his  orbit,  and  the  primal  sphere 
rotated  beneath,  the  crest  of  the  tide  must  have  been  per 
petually  varying  through  all  the  equatorial  circle,  and 
hence  the  planetoids  must  have  gone  off  at  all  their  differ 
ent  degrees  of  perihelion  longitude  and  ascending  nodal 
line,  and  as  there  must  have  been  unequal  attractions  at 
different  times  on  opposite  sides  of  the  equatorial  circle, 
so  there  must  have  been  all  the  different  degrees  of  inclina 
tion  that  the  planetoidal  orbits  possessed,  and  which  may 


THE   LAWS    OF   WORLD-SYSTEMS.  343 

perpetually  be  modified  by  later  interferences.  With  such 
a  neighboring  planet  as  Jupiter,  its  next  inferior  body 
could  not  have  been  thrown  off  a  mature  planet,  but  must 
have  been  a  planetoid  followed  by  others  in  succession  till 
the  accumulations  and  expulsions  were  balanced.  And  on 
the  other  hand,  nothing  but  such  preponderance  of  plane 
tary  attraction  and  tidal  elevation  progressing  from  place 
to  place  over  the  equatorial  circle,  could  have  combined 
so  many  peculiarities  of  planetoid  formation  and  revolution 
as  the  facts  disclose.  The  planetoids  must  have  been  be 
tween  Mars  and  Jupiter ;  they  could  not  have  been  pro 
duced  between  any  other  two  of  our  planets. 

Of  precisely  an  opposite  character  to  the  planetoids  are 
the  rings  of  Saturn.  Many  of  the  planets  have  satellites, 
but  Saturn  only  is  surrounded  nearly  in  its  equatorial  plane 
by  a  system  of  concentric  thin  and  broad  rings.  So  singu 
lar  a  fact  has  rendered  the  phenomenon  a  matter  of  the 
highest  interest,  but  no  investigation  has  as  yet  brought 
the  fact  under  the  determination  of  any  principle,  nor  sub 
jected  it  to  any  necessary  law.  Saturn  has  eight  satellites, 
all  but  the  exterior  one  in  the  same  general  plane  of  the 
ring  which  is  interior  to  them  all.  The  exterior  satellite  is 
inclined  to  this  plane  12°  14',  and  is  more  than  64  semi- 
diameters  of  Saturn  distant  from  it,  while  the  interior  satel 
lite  is  but  a  little  more  than  3  semi-diameters,  or  about 
144,000  miles,  distant  from  the  centre  of  Saturn.  The  ring 
is  manifestly,  at  least  in  some  periods  of  its  observation,  di 
vided  into  two,  one  within  the  other,  with  a  comparatively 
narrow  space  between  them.  The  exterior  ring  is  the  nar 
rowest,  and  is  10,573  miles  broad,  the  ulterior  ring  being 
17,176  miles  in  breadth,  and  the  interval  between  the  rings 


344  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

being  1,791  miles  in  breadth,  thus  giving  to  the  whole  annu 
lar  space  a  breadth  of  29,540  miles.  The  interval  between 
the  lower  edge  of  the  ring  and  the  equatorial  surface  of  Sat 
urn  is  19,089  miles,  or  about  one-half  the  semi-diameter  of 
Saturn.  There  has  recently  been  discovered  a  third  trans 
parent  ring,  stretching  down  from  the  inner  portion  of  the 
second  ring  like  a  thin  vail  toward  the  surface  of  the 
planet.  The  thickness  of  the  ring  is  so  small  that  when  its 
edge  is  alone  presented  to  the  best  glasses  it  is  invisible,  or 
barely  perceptible,  and  cannot  be  more  than  250  miles.  It 
is  slightly  eccentric,  and  thus  balancing  itself  upon  a  mova 
ble  point  about  the  centre  of  Saturn,  and  is  deemed  to  be 
in  a  fluid  state. 

If  now,  when  the  revolutions  of  Saturn  had  brought  the 
equatorial  accumulation  to  a  pretty  equable  and  narrow 
distribution  about  the  mid-line  of  the  planet,  and  this  raised 
equatorial  ring  was  passing  round  in  regular  rotation  with 
the  planet,  and  the  tangential  force  hardly  availing  to 
throw  it  off  as  it  had  done  its  last  satellite,  the  eight  moons 
of  Saturn  should  be  so  distributed  in  their  revolutions  as 
to  lift,  in  their  attractions,  pretty  equably  on  all  sides  of 
the  planet  around  its  equator,  it  must  follow  that  the  body 
of  the  planet  would  separate  itself  from  this  equatorial 
accumulation,  and  the  separated  part  would  at  once  be  a 
fluid  ring  henceforth  perpetually  to  revolve  at  its  own 
steady  velocity,  and  in  its  own  place,  about  the  body  of 
the  planet  as  that  should  condense  and  rotate  beneath  it. 
The  rotating  planet,  and  the  revolving  ring,  together  with 
the  revolving  moons,  would  all  be  carried  about  the  sun, 
by  the  tangential  force  that  sent  the  planet  out  in  its  orbit. 

This  ring,  thus  separated  and  revolving,  must  throw  its 


THE    LAW    OF    COMETS.  345 

fluid  matter  upward  and  spread  itself  out  into  a  thin*  plane, 
and  any  subsequent  unequal  attractions  must  make  partial 
divisions,  and  continued  condensations  would  secure  com 
plete  separations  all  round  within  the  substance  of  the 
ring,  and  would  thus  necessarily  work  it  into  the  precise 
position  presented  by  its  present  phenomena.  Nothing 
hinders  that  this  ring  may  perpetuate  itself  unbroken 
transversely,  so  long  as  its  fluid  state  permits  it  to  yield 
and  equilibrate  itself  to  any  disturbing  one-sided  attrac 
tions,  and  its  rotating  centre  about  the  planet's  centre  to 
balance  all  disturbing  revolutions. 

Nothing  could  give  such  a  revolving  ring,  but  such  a 
favorable  distribution  of  many  attracting  bodies  at  the 
right  state  of  the  equatorial  accumulation ;  and  if  such  an 
arrangement  of  circumstances  did  occur,  then  Saturn's  ring 
was  a  necessary  consequence.  No  other  planet  has  the 
requisite  satellites,  and  no  other  occasion  could  be  given 
in  our  system  for  a  revolving  ring,  but  in  some  such  distri 
bution  of  planets  about  the  primal  sphere,  and  that  indeed 
may  have  made  the  ring  between  the  Earth  and  Mars  that 
reflects  the  mysterious  zodiacal  light  upon  us. 

11.  THE  LAW  OF  COMETS. — Remnants  of  the  chemically 
chaotic  matter,  which  have  not  been  taken  up  and  con 
densed  in  the  world-systems,  must  come  together  in  the 
diremptive  currents  that  yet  move  through  the  primitive 
ether,  and  thus  form  larger  or  smaller  collections  of  mat 
ter  moving  amid  the  intervening  spaces  of  the  systems. 
They  may  also  be  constantly  accumulating  in  the  irradia 
tions  and  interworkings  of  the  primitive  forces,  and  thus  at 
no  time  will  the  interstellary  spaces  be  free  from  many 
light  and  floating  bodies,  that  condense  about  their  own 


34:6  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

centres  with  sufficient  consistency  to  maintain  their  integri 
ty  of  connection,  though  rapidly  moving  through  the  ethe 
real  fluid.  These  bodies  are  comets,  and  subject  to  the 
universal  forces  that  constitute  and  move  them,  but  as 
independent  of  the  systems  they  manifest  themselves  to  us 
by  no  phenomena,  and  give  no  facts  to  be  referred  to  the 
control  of  any  particular  laws.  They  may  come  within  a 
system,  pass  through  and  beyond  it,  and  have  no  more  any 
communication  with  it,  or  be  caught  and  retained  by  it, 
and  afterwards  make  up  a  component  part  of  it,  and  have 
their  facts  bound  up  in  laws  that  are  necessitated  by  the 
principles  inherent  in  it.  Under  this  idea  of  cometary 
origin,  we  contemplate  the  facts  which  the  comets  connect 
ed  or  communicating  with  our  system  give  to  our  ob 
servation. 

Comets  manifest  themselves  to  be  exceedingly  tenuous 
in  the  matter  of  their  composition,  inasmuch  as  they  are 
completely  diaphanous,  and  the  stars  before  which  they 
pass  appear  through  their  most  central  portions  with  their 
light  not  perceptibly  diminished.  But  this  extreme  rarity 
compared  with  the  bodies  of  the  planets  is  still  great  densi 
ty  compared  with  the  primitive  ethereal  fluid.  They  pass, 
sometimes  with  the  most  surprising  velocity,  through  this 
ethereal  medium  with  but  slight  obstruction  from  it.  The 
ethereal  resistance,  wholly  inappreciable  by  any  reference 
to  the  movements  of  the  planets,  is  yet  quite  determinate 
in  the  movements  of  the  comets.  Encke's  comet  has  lost 
distinctively  in  each  of  the  last  ten  observed  revolutions, 
what  in  the  aggregate  amounts  to  about  one  entire  day. 
There  has  also  been  determined  in  the  revolutions  of 
Biela's  comet  a  similar  retardation.  So  also,  when  the  tail 


THE   LAW    OF   COMETS.  347 

of  a  comet  appears  curved,  the  convex  portion  is  found  to 
be  in  the  direction  from  which  the  comet  has  been  moving, 
therein  manifesting  that  the  most  subtle  perceptible  vapor 
of  a  comet  is  still  impeded  by  the  ether  through  which  it 
passes.  Such  thin  and  light  bodies  cannot  have  sufficient 
gravity  to  induce  a  radiation  of  any  latent  heat-force  at  the 
centre  and  make  them  to  be  self-luminous,  and  hence  we 
find  they  do  not,  like  the  stars,  keep  the  same  brightness, 
though  diminishing  in  apparent  volume  by  distance,  but 
often  fade  out  and  disappear  even  where  the  body  at  the 
last  still  presents  a  considerable  disk,  therein  manifesting 
that  they  have  shone  only  in  reflected  light. 

The  principle  of  cometary  origin  admits  that  they  may 
be  deflected  from  their  former  course  by  the  interfering 
attractions  of  a  system,  and  made  to  take  a  perihelion  pas 
sage  about  the  central  body,  and  thence  may  pass  on  in  a 
curve  that  returns  again  completely  within  itself,  and  be 
come  an  elliptical  orbit,  or  it  may  pass  on  and  pass  out  of 
the  system  in  either  a  parabolic  or  hyperbolic  curve,  and 
never  again  return  to  the  system  through  which  it  has 
passed.  A  comet,  also,  that  has  been  caught  and  retained 
in  a  complete  elliptical  orbit,  may  subsequently  be  sub 
jected  to  interfering  attractions  that  shall  greatly  change 
its  orbit,  or  even  make  it  to  take  a  curve  that  shall  com 
pletely  carry  it  again  out  of  the  system.  The  retained 
comets  will  have  more  varied  inclinations  and  eccentrici 
ties  than  the  planets,  for  they  come  in  under  impulses  of 
all  degrees  and  directions,  while  the  planets  are  ejected 
from  the  one  source  of  the  same  rotating  sphere.  Some 
will  pass  about  the  sun  in  one  direction,  and  others  in  an 
opposite  direction,  and  thus  there  will  be  comets  of  direct 


34:8  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

and  others  of  retrograde  movement,  the  chances  for  each 
being  equal. 

The  facts  correspond  to  what  might  thus  be  anticipa 
ted.  Faye's  comet,  discovered  in  November,  1843,  was 
determined  to  a  period  of  7£  years  in  an  elliptical  orbit  of 
but  a  little  extent  beyond  Jupiter.  The  wonder  was,  why 
a  comet  so  often  occurring  should  not  have  been  before 
observed  ?  The  answer  which  has  satisfied,  was  derived 
from  the  fact,  that  in  the  point  of  its  aphelion  it  had  then 
approached  very  near  to  Jupiter  in  that  part  of  his  orbit, 
and  that  thus  it  had  been  deflected  from  its  course  in  a 
parabolic  curve,  or  a  much  larger  ellipse,  and  was  thereby 
then  brought  into  an  orbit  within  the  range  of  terrestrial 
observation. 

A  more  remarkable  case  to  the  same  point,  is  the 
comet  discovered  by  Messier  in  1770.  This  comet  made 
two  revolutions  round  the  sun,  and  has  since  been  lost 
to  further  observation.  Very  careful  calculations  have 
been  made  by  Lexell,  La  Place,  and  especially  by  La  Ver- 
rier,  and  with  somewhat  different  conclusions,  but  all  con 
curring  in  this,  that  the  disturbing  influence  of  Jupiter  in 
its  last  aphelion  had  thrown  it  quite  out  of  its  former 
orbit,  and  that  it  might  have  gone  out  wholly  from  the 
system,  or  into  another  elliptical  orbit  not  yet  recognized, 
or  might  even  have  passed  within  the  orbits  of  the  moons 
of  Jupiter,  and  been  permanently  lodged  in  that  planet. 
The  general  fact  seems  established,  that  comets  have  been 
both  caught  in,  and  expelled  from  the  system. 

Biela's  comet  has  its  orbit  from  a  little  within  the 
earth's  orbit  to  a  little  beyond  Jupiter's  orbit,  and  thus 
of  course  moves  almost  entirely  between  the  earth  and 


THE   LAW    OF   COMETS.  349 

Jupiter,  passing  the  orbits  of  Mars  and  the  planetoids. 
It  is  but  little  inclined  to  the  plane  of  the  general  system, 
of  comparative  slight  eccentricity,  and  in  a  period  of  less 
than  7  years  revolution.  These  planets  may  act  upon  it 
with  a  divellent  force  in  opposite  directions,  but  their  joint 
action  in  conjunction  must  be  too  slight,  from  the  neces 
sary  distance  in  such  a  case,  to  be  of  any  account.  The 
dense  bodies  of  Mars  and  the  planetoids  may  also  inter 
fere  occasionally  with  great  effect. 

The  very  singular  fact  that  this  comet  separated  itself 
into  two  distinct  comets  in  its  appearance  in  1846,  and 
that  so  long  as  they  remained  visible  for  about  4  months, 
they  continued  separate  at  rather  diverging  directions, 
and  especially  that  on  their  return  in  1852,  they  had  in 
creased  their  direct  distance  apart  to  more  than  one  and  a 
half  million  of  miles,  is  a  clear  evidence  of  the  slight  con 
sistency  in  the  bodies  of  the  comets  and  the  readiness 
with  which  interfering  influences  may  greatly  modify  their 
entire  constitutions.  Whether  conflicting  attractions  or 
disparting  resistances  induced  this  disruption,  the  fact 
itself  determines  that  comets  may  readily  be  multiplied  or 
changed. 

Up  to  1854,  of  more  than  200  comets  that  had  appear 
ed  and  been  determined  in  their  elements,  we  have  the 
following  distinctions  with  their  peculiarities : 

(1.)  Comets  with  elliptical  orbits.  There  are  13  of  this 
class  whose  mean  distances  are  within  the  orbit  of  Saturn. 
Taking  the  earth's  mean  distance  as  the  standard,  the  least 
distant  of  these  is  2,2148,  and  the  most  distant  is  6,3206. 
The  least  eccentric  of  them  is  0,6173,  and  the  most  eccen 
tric  is  0,8490.  The  orbit  least  inclined  to  the  ecliptic  is 


350  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

1°  34'  28",  and  that  most  inclined  is  30°  57'  51."  They 
all  move  direct  in  their  orbits,  or  in  concurrence  with  the 
planets.  There  are  again  6  of  these  whose  mean  distance 
is  within  and  pretty  near  to  the  orbit  of  Uranus.  The 
least  distant  of  these  compared  with  the  earth  from  the 
sun,  is  14,5306,  and  the  most  distant  is  17,9875.  The 
least  eccentric  is  0,9248,  and  the  most  eccentric  is  0,9726. 
The  least  inclination  to  the  ecliptic  is  17°  45'  5",  and  the 
most  is  84°  57'  13".  One  of  these,  HaUey's  comet,  is 
retrograde,  and  the  others  are  direct.  And  then,  further, 
there  are  21  of  the  comets  with  elliptical  orbks  whose 
mean  distances  exceed  the  furthest  known  limits  of  our 
system.  Compared  with  the  earth's  solar  distance,  the 
least  is  33,0310,  and  the  furthest  is  2138,0000.  The  least 
eccentric  is  0,96990,  and  the  most  eccentric  is  0,99998. 
The  least  inclined  to  the  ecliptic  is  21°  16'  5",  and  the  most 
inclined  is  83°  47'  46".  Ten  are  direct  and  eleven  retro 
grade.  There  were  thus  determined  40  of  the  elliptical 
comets. 

(2.)  Comets  with  hyperbolic  courses.  There  have  been 
determined  in  their  courses  7  hyperbolic  comets.  The 
perihelion  distance  of  the  least,  compared  with  that  of  the 
earth,  was  0,6184,  and  the  furthest  was  4,0635.  The  least 
inclined  to  the  ecliptic  was  11°  15'  19",  and  the  most  in 
clined  was  83°  20'  26".  One  was  retrograde  and  six 
direct. 

(3.)  Comets  with  parabolic  courses.  There  have  been 
determined  160  parabolic  comets.  The  least  in  perihelion 
distance  must  have  nearly  grazed  the  surface  of  the  sun, 
and  the  furthest  was  in  perihelion  distance,  compared 
with  the  earth,  2,1985.  The  least  inclined  was  1°  55'  0", 


THE   LAW    OF   COMETS.  |(  U  N  I  "9&E  RSI 

and  the  most  inclined  to  the  ecliptic  was  ^^gt'JJLppl 
Of  these  70  were  direct,  86  retrograde,  and  4  noT~de- 
termined. 

Some  of  these  statistics  distinguishing  the  comets  from 
the  planets  are,  their  wide  differences  of  inclination  from  a 
little  more  than  1°  to  a  little  less  than  90°,  while  the  incli 
nation  of  the  planets  only  reaches  to  about  7°  and  the 
planetoids  to  about  35°;  and  also  their  degrees  of  eccen 
tricity  in  their  orbits,  which  compared  with  the  earth  is 
from  0,6173  to  0,99998,  while  the  most  eccentric  of  the 
planets  is  Mercury,  0,38709,  and  of  the  planetoids  is  Po- 
lyrnnia,  0,337.  Their  mean  distances  from  the  sun  are 
from  a  little  more  than  twice  that  of  the  earth  to  2138 
times  the  earth's  distance.  Such  wide  discrepancies  deter 
mine  that  the  planets  and  elliptical  comets  could  not  have 
been  thrown  off  from  the  same  rotating  sphere,  and  that 
the  comets  could  not  themselves  have  been  formed  from 
any  one  systematic  revolution,  but  must  have  come  within 
the  system  under  separate  impulses.  This  is  still  more 
manifest  in  the  wide  differences  of  longitude  of  ascending 
node  in  the  comets,  reaching  from  1°  12'  24"  to  356°  17' 
38".  The  most  elliptical  planetary  orbit  is  still  near  to  a 
circle,  but  the  most  elliptical  cometary  orbit  has'  the  two 
sides  and  the  major  axis  almost  parallel  to  each  other. 
Such  wide  extremes  are  plainly  incidental  to  their  separate 
and  independent  introduction  into  the  system. 

But  while  these  general  facts  come  thus  under  the 
general  law  for  cometary  connection  with  the  planetary 
system,  there  are  two  particulars  that  require  and  will 
repay  a  distinct  and  close  examination.  We  will  first  look 
at  the  facts  of  the  inclination  of  cometary  elliptical  orbits 


352  THE   NECESSAKY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

to  the  ecliptic;  and  second,  to  the  facts  connected  with 
their  direct  and  retrograde  revolutions. 

We  have  seen  that  of  40  elliptical  orbits  of  the  comets, 
13  are  within  the  orbit  of  Saturn,  taking  the  mean  distance, 
and  their  extremes  of  inclination  to  the  ecliptic  are  from 
1°  34'  28"  to  30°  57'  51";  and  that  there  are  6  within  the 
orbit  of  Uranus  and  near  to  it,  whose  extremes  of  inclina 
tion  to  the  ecliptic  are  17°  45'  5"  up  to  84°  57'  13";  and 
there  are  21  beyond  the  outermost  known  planetary  orbit, 
ranging  in  extremes  of  ecliptic  inclination  from  21°  16'  5" 
to  83°  47'  46".  The  peculiarity  observable  is  in  the  first 
class  of  orbits  within  Saturn,  where  their  extremes  of  incli 
nation  are  quite  limited,  the  furthest  being  still  within  the 
plane  of  the  furthest  inclined  planetoid,  and  all  the  rest 
within  18°  of  inclination.  In  the  other  two  classes  the 
extreme  inclination  reaches  almost  to  a  direct  perpendicu 
lar  to  the  ecliptic.  Moreover,  in  the  first  class  the  orbits 
are  much  less  eccentric  and  their  elements  strongly  allied 
to  those  of  the  planets,  so  that  they  have  been  distinguished 
as  having  a  planetary  character  and  especially  as  strongly 
analogous  to  the  orbits  of  the  planetoids.  The  extreme 
rarity  of  all  comets  will,  however,  universally  distinguish 
them  from  all  planetary  bodies  that  have  been  thrown  off 
from  their  one  primal  rotating  sphere.  The  nearest  as  well 
as  the  most  remote  in  their  superior  apsides,  all  have  come 
within  the  system  from  some  independent  source  without. 
But  why  the  nearest  class  so  conformed  in  inclination  to 
the  planetary  system,  and  the  others  reach  almost  at  right- 
angles  to  it  ? 

Entering  the  system  independently,  they  should  have 
had  each  an  equal  ratio  of  extreme  inclination  on  their  first 


THE   LAW    OF   COMETS.  353 

introduction,  and  hence  we  must  look  for  something  within 
the  system  that  has  induced  this  peculiarity  since  their 
entrance.  Now  a  careful  insight  into  their  position  and 
revolution  in  reference  to  the  planets  will  disclose  this 
necessary  law  of  their  limited  inclination  to  the  ecliptic. 
Suppose  one  of  these  comets  on  its  solitary  way  to  have 
come  within  the  gravitating  force  of  our  system,  and  to  be 
so  drawn  to  it  that  it  passes  in  and  around  the  sun,  and 
onward  in  its  elliptical  path  to  a  complete  orbit,  and  that 
the  plane  of  this  orbit  is  directly  perpendicular  to  the  com 
mon  plane  of  the  planetary  orbits.  In  its  revolution  it 
does  not  go  off  further  from  the  sun  than  Saturn,  and 
though  at  right-angles  to  Saturn's  course  it  will  not  at  the 
furthest  remove  have  gone  beyond  all  Saturn's  appreciable 
influence,  and  through  all  its  revolution  it  will  be  affected 
by  all  the  planets  within  the  orbit  of  Saturn.  These 
planetary  attractions  will  not  always,  nor  even  often,  be  all 
uniformly  arranged  so  as  to  balance  their  action  upon  the 
comet,  but  must  almost  perpetually  act  in  excess  upon  one 
side  of  the  comet,  and  which  must  turn  it  down  and  incline 
its  orbit  less  than  at  right  angles  to  the  planetary  plane. 
Such  inclination  within  90°  once  secured,  the  conspiring 
attractions  of  the  planets  in  their  perpetually  concurring 
occasions  must  bring  the  inclination  nearer  and  nearer  into 
conformity  with  the  planets,  until  the  whole  cometary 
orbit  shall  find  its  place  of  general  equilibration  with  the  at 
tractions  to  which  from  perihelion  to  aphelion  it  is  subject, 
and  must  afterwards  oscillate  about  this  as  alternate  excesses 
and  deficiencies  of  gravitation  on  each  side  shall  induce. 
Any  comet,  commencing  to  revolve  in  an  orbit  less  than  a 

right-angle  to  the  common  planetary  plane,  must  the  more 
23 


354:  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS   OF   THE    UNIVERSE. 

certainly  be  at  length  brought  to  its  equilibrating  plane  of 
inclination,  and  as  these  attractions  are  from  the  bodies  of 
the  system,  so  they  must  bring  the  cometary  orbit  into  a 
general  conformity  with  the  planetary  orbits. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  the  length  of  the  orbit  puts 
the  comet  through  the  superior  half  of  its  orbital  move 
ment  beyond  the  reach  of  any  appreciable  planetary  attrac 
tions,  the  general  plane  cannot  be  modified  thereby,  and  it 
must  perpetually  revolve  at  the  same  general  inclination  of 
the  orbit  as  was  first  originated.  The  smaller  orbits  also 
must  have  had  a  less  excess  of  projectile  over  the  attrac 
tive  force  to  carry  them  round  the  sun,  and  thus  they 
must  be  less  eccentric  and  more  circular. 

But  a  still  more  surprising  conformity  appears  in  the 
facts  ol  direct  and  retrograde  movement  by  the  comets,  to 
which  we  will  next  attend.  All  the  comets  whose  mean 
distances  are  within  Saturn  are  direct  in  their  movements ; 
all  but  one  are  direct  also  whose  mean  distances  are  nearly 
equal  to  that  of  Uranus;  and  of  the  21  comets  determined, 
whose  mean  distances  are  beyond  the  outskirts  of  the  sys 
tem,  10  are  direct  and  11  are  retrograde.  Why  this  grow 
ing  tendency  to  retrogradation  in  the  greater  distance  ? 

If  we  suppose  a  comet  whose  distance  and  plane  of 
inclination  brings  it  perpetually  within  the  attraction  of  the 
planetary  bodies,  it  will  be  found  a  natural  and  necessary 
result,  that  such  comet  shall  ultimately  take  on  a  direct 
movement  in  its  orbit.  With  such  an  inclination,  no  mat 
ter  what  its  original  longitude  of  ascending  node,  nor  what 
its  longitude  of  perihelion,  the  conspiring  movements  of 
the  planets  in  their  orbits  and  of  the  comet  in  its  orbit  will 
necessitate,  that  a  comet  of  retrograde  movement  shall  at 


THE   LAW   OF   COMETS.  355 

length  take  on  a  direct  movement.  The  planets  all  move 
in  one  direction ;  as  estimated  from  our  terrestrial  stand 
point,  this  direction  is  from  a  westerly  to  an  easterly  bear 
ing.  Suppose  the  comet,  no  matter  what  its  longitude  of 
perihelion,  nor  what  its  orbital  plane  of  inclination  if 
brought  to  He  beyond  the  sun's  semi-diameter  and  yet  not 
beyond  the  reach  of  all  planetary  attraction,  to  have  such 
a  longitude  of  ascending  node  for  its  orbit  as  not  to  equili 
brate  with  all  attractions  through  the  whole  line  in  which 
its  plane  cuts  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic.  Suppose  this  lon 
gitude  of  ascending  node  at  first  to  be  45°  from  the  point 
of  Aries,  and  that  the  movement  of  the  comet  is  here  re 
trograde. 

This  comet  must,  then,  in  its  revolution,  have  all  the 
planetary  attractions  it  can  meet  on  the  right  hand  side  of 
its  course,  to  come  from  planets  that  are  moving  in  oppo 
site  directions  to  itself,  and  which  must  therefore  be  to  and 
past  itself;  and  all  the  planetary  attractions  it  can  meet  on 
the  left  hand,  to  come  from  planets  that  are  moving  in  the 
same  direction  and  thus  for  some  distance  concurrent  with 
itself.  The  aggregate  amount  of  attractions  received  by 
this  comet,  in  any  considerable  number  of  revolutions, 
must  be  the  largest  on  its  left  hand  side,  and  must  there 
fore  secure  a  turning  of  the  orbit  to  the  left  and  thereby  a 
proportional  elevation  of  the  longitude  of  ascending  node. 
It  is  true  that  incidentally  to  some  revolutions,  the  con 
junctions  or  oppositions  of  the  planets  may  be  such  in 
reference  to  that  particular  revolution,  that  the  attractions 
shall  then  happen  to  be  the  most  on  the  right  hand,  and 
the  longitude  of  ascending  node  be  diminished  instead  of 
being  increased ;  but  yet,  taking  one  revolution  after  an- 


356  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

other  for  successive  periods,  the  attractions  of  the  concur 
rent  passages  must  exceed  in  the  aggregate  the  attractions 
of  the  occurrent  passages,  and  thus,  with  some  oscillations, 
the  line  of  ascending  node  must  rise  higher  and  higher 
from  the  point  of  Aries. 

That  such  increase  of  longitude  of  ascending  node  may 
be  very  considerable  in  a  single  revolution  is  very  manifest 
from  the  observed  interference  of  planetary  attractions  with 
the  regularity  of  cometary  revolutions.  Clairaut  deter 
mined  that  Halley's  comet,  from  perihelion  in  1682  to  next 
perihelion  in  1750,  had  been  disturbed  by  Saturn's  attrac 
tion  so  much  as  to  increase  its  period  100  days,  and  by 
Jupiter's  attraction  so  much  as  to  augment  its  period  518 
days,  thus  making  from  both  influences  the  comet's  revolu 
tion  to  be  more  than  20  months  longer  time  than  its  proper 
sidereal  period.  So  great  a  retardation  from  planetary 
attraction  in  one  revolution,  and  this  moreover  from  two 
planets  only,  is  sufficient  to  evince  how  readily  the  line  of 
ascending  node  may  be  modified.  Ultimately,  our  sup 
posed  comet  whose  orbit  has  a  longitude  of  ascending  node 
at  first  of  45°  must  pass  on  beyond  90°,  and  having  thus 
passed  the  culminating  point  from  Aries,  the  comet  in  its 
course  instead  of  now  running  against  the  planetary  move 
ments  on  the  right  hand  side  of  its  major  axis,  will  be 
running  with  the  planetary  movements  on  the  left  hand 
side  of  its  major  axis,  and  thereby  have  changed  its  rela 
tive  course  from  a  retrograde  to  a  direct  movement.  The 
same  excess  of  attractions  on  the  concurrent  side  of  the 
orbit  with  the  planets  must  make  the  line  of  ascending 
node  still  revolve  to  a  greater  degree,  till  the  point  is 
reached  in  the  particular  orbital  plane  of  the  comet,  that 


THE   LAW   OF   COMETS.  357 

equilibrates  the  right  and  left  hand  attractions  through  the 
whole  revolution,  and  must  there  remain  with  the  slight 
oscillations  to  and  fro  that  incidental  disturbances  will 
occasion. 

Any  other  supposed  degree  of  longitude  of  ascending 
node  than  45°,  must  be  subject  to  the  same  excess  of  at 
traction  on  the  side  of  the  concurrent  passages  of  the 
planets,  and  bring  the  comet  to  a  conformity  of  relative 
movement  with  the  planets,  and  fix  its  orbit  in  its  balanced 
position.  Thus  all  comets  that  move  in  orbits  wholly 
within  the  planetary  system  must  at  length  become  direct, 
even  if  primarily  they  were  retrograde. 

Now,  all  the  comets  whose  mean  distances  are  wdthin 
the  system  are  direct  in  their  movement,  except  the  one 
case  of  Halley's  Comet.  If  that  one  case  remained  with 
no  tendencies  to  come  to  a  direct  movement,  it  would 
throw  its  doubt  upon  any  such  principle  as  determining 
the  law.  But  if  that  solitary  exception  clearly  manifest 
that  it  is  working  under  the  control  of  this  principle,  it 
becomes  itself  a  fact  in  confirmation,  and  we  do  not  need 
to  have  had  the  observation  of  any  past  case,  since  we 
can  see  that  the  last  and  only  remaining  case  is  surely 
coming  into  conformity.  The  last  7  revolutions  of  Halley's 
Comet  have  been  determined  in  their  elements,  and  the 
changes  of  longitude  of  ascending  node  are  as  follows : 

The  orbit  for  perihelion  passage  1378  had  Ion.  of  as.  node  47°  17'  00" 

«                             «              1456  "                   "  48°  30'  00" 

"              1531  "  45°  30'  00" 

1607  "  48°  20'  28* 

1682  "  51°  11'  18* 

1759  "  53D  50'  27* 

«                             «              1835  "                    "  55°  09'  59" 


358  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

Here  then  is  a  steady  and  pretty  equable  increase  for 
each  revolution,  but  that  of  perihelion  passage  1531,  and 
which  must  have  had  an  uncommon  combination  of  oppos 
ing  planetary  passages,  if  the  calculation  has  been  correct. 
On  the  whole  there  is  an  increase  of  8°  in  7  revolutions 
of  the  comet,  and  though  there  be  but  the  same  increase 
in  future,  the  orbit  will  pass  the  perpendicular  and  the 
comet  be  direct  after  about  30  more  perihelion  passages. 
That  Halley's  Comet  is  thus  approaching  to  a  direct 
movement  is  a  significant  fact  for  the  principle  that  has 
determined  all  that  may  have  been  retrograde,  long  since 
to  have  become  direct  as  they  are  now  found. 

Those  comets  whose  mean  distances  are  out  of  the  sys 
tem,  and  some  of  them  more  than  50  times  the  mean  dis 
tance  of  Neptune,  can  have  but  little  interference  from 
planetary  attraction  in  their  rapid  perihelion  passages,  and 
none  that  can  bear  upon  the  aphelion  half  of  their  orbit,  and 
therefore  no  steady  approaches  to  any  change  in  the  order 
of  their  orbital  movement  can  be  anticipated.  These 
comets  should  perpetuate  their  movements  either  retro 
grade  or  direct,  as  their  primitive  introductory  impulses 
have  determined  for  them.  The  chances  for  each  were 
equal,  and  the  facts  give  as  near  an  equal  division  as  pos 
sible,  for  of  the  21  comets  revolving  beyond  our  system  as 
above  determined,  10  are  direct  and  11  retrograde. 

The  impulse  and  attractions  that  make  a  hyperbolic 
cometary  course  must  be  extreme,  and  therefore  few  are 
formed.  There  were  of  the  7  determined  hyperbolic 
courses,  one  comet  only  retrograde.  A  parabolic  course 
is  the  most  probable  for  a  comet,  for  it  most  nearly  equal 
izes  the  projectile  and  attracting  forces,  and  excludes  the 


THE   LAWS    OF   GEOLOGICAL   FORMATION.  359 

incidental  interferences  that  should  turn  it  to  an  ellipse, 
and  we  find  determined  160,  of  which  TO  were  direct,  86 
retrograde,  4  not  ascertained.  As  near  an  equal  division 
as  a  promiscuous  determination  would  lead  us  to  expect. 

12.  LAWS  OF  GEOLOGICAL  FORMATION. — The  one  Idea 
for  the  formation  of  worlds,  by  the  revolutions  of  rotating 
masses  of  molten  matter,  applies  to  all  stars  and  systems, 
but  the  facts  can  be  brought  within  observation  and  expe 
riment  only  on  our  globe,  except  as  some  very  general 
phenomena  may  be  discovered  in  the  moon,  and  the  other 
planets  and  satellites  of  the  system.  The  earth  also  is 
completely  hidden  from  our  observation,  except  to  the 
depth  of  some  eight  or  ten  miles  of  its  superficial  portion. 
But  all  the  facts  of  Geology  that  we  find  conform  to  the 
conditions  imposed  by  the  determining  principle  we  have 
attained. 

The  grand  facts  in  the  superficial  crust  of  the  earth 
are,  that  it  has  been  broken  up  by  some  action  of  subter 
ranean  forces,  and  large  masses  of  the  broken  strata  have 
been  made  to  turn  up  their  edges  to  the  surface  with  a 
greater  or  less  dip  toward  the  horizon,  and  these  upturned 
edges  exposed  to  view,  disclose  what  are  the  orders  and  the 
contents  of  the  several  strata  as  they  lie  in  their  undis 
turbed  horizontal  position.  The  lowest  depths  disclosed 
determine  unmistakably  the  near  and  constant  action  of  in 
tense  heat.  The  great  base  of  all  the  discovered  and 
approachable  strata  is  the  granite,  which  has  been  cooled 
and  crystallized,  and  lies  upon  the  burning  fluid  beneath 
in  a  solid  mass  of  unknown  thickness.  Above  this  lie  the 
gneiss  formations  unstratified  and  of  great  thickness,  and 
on  this  rests  the  superincumbent  stratifications  of  mica 


360  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS   OF   THE   UNIVEKSE. 

schist  of  many  thousand  feet  depth.  Herein  is  embraced 
what  some  Geologists  classify  as  the  Cumbrian  forma 
tion^  and  in  which  nothing  but  the  chemical  composition 
of  unorganized  matter  appears.  Thus  far  only  the  an 
tagonist  and  diremptive  forces  have  blended,  and  dead 
matter  only  with  no  traces  of  the  life-force  appears. 

The  Cambrian  System  of  old  slate  stone  a  mile  in 
thickness  through  its  varied  stratifications  overtops  the 
Cumbrian,  and  in  those  strata  we  begin  to  find  the  evi 
dences  of  air  and  water,  and  that  the  slate  beds  in  which 
the  lowest  fossil  remains  are  found,  must  have  been  de 
posits  beneath  the  water  and  not  the  cooling  crust  above 
the  fire.  The  Silurian  system  is  above  this  for  a  mile  and 
a,  half  in  thickness,  and  its  various  stratified  deposits  have 
their  hundreds  of  extinct  species  of  fossil  organizations ; 
and  then  we  have  the  old  red  sandstone  many  thou 
sand  feet  thick,  made  up  of  the  fractured  and  decomposed 
rocks  which  have  been  rent  asunder  and  here  deposited 
from  some  older  formation,  with  many  fossils  of  wholly 
extinct  species.  Then  the  interposed  limestone  and  coal 
formations,  the  new  red  sandstone  the  oolite  and  the 
chalk-beds,  all  of  several  miles  depth,  finish  what  is  known 
as  the  secondary  formation.  Higher  up  still  is  the  tertiary 
formation  of  lime  and  clay  and  sand,  on  which  are  the 
diluvial  deposits,  and  we  come  to  the  comparatively  re 
cent  epoch  when  man  had  first  his  creation  and  abode 
upon  the  earth. 

So  would  the  rolling  molten  mass  have  formed  its  sur 
face,  when  thrown  off  as  a  planet  from  the  revolving  sphere 
that  had  previously  discharged  the  planets  which  are  be 
yond  the  earth.  The  specific  gravity  of  the  matter  must 


THE   LAWS   OF   GEOLOGICAL   FORMATION.  361 

have  determined  the  lighter  to  the  higher  positions,  and  as 
these  successively  cooled  and  hardened,  we  should  have  the 
mica  schist,  the  gneiss  and  granite  in  their  places,  and  the 
crust  then  of  sufficient  thickness,  and  the  temperature  of 
sufficient  coolness,  that  water  and  an  atmosphere  might 
there  be  formed,  and  the  life-force  be  introduced  by  the 
Creator,  and  the  germs  of  plants  and  embryos  of  animal 
being  be  given  to  material  nature.  Disintegrations  and 
decompositions  and  subterranean  convulsions  must  per 
petually  occur,  affording  materials  for  new  deposits,  and 
which  may  have  many  alternations  of  submersion  and  up 
heaval,  and  thus  ranging  the  strata  and  their  varied  fossil 
remains  as  the  geologist  now  finds  them.  These  subterra 
nean  forces  must  have  often  ruptured  the  whole  crust,  and 
turned  up  the  edges  of  the  strata,  and  formed  the  moun 
tains  and  valleys,  and  exposed  the  granite,  gneiss  and  mica 
as  they  now  appear.  Oftentimes  the  molten  matter  be 
neath  will  have  been  forced  through  the  fissures  of  the 
granite  and  overlying  strata,  and  cooled  into  the  forms  of 
trap  and  basalt  as  now  found  in  their  localities. 

So,  manifestly,  with  the  revolving  earth.  But  the 
Moon,  with  no  rotation  on  its  axis,  must  cool  and  harden 
with  no  wrapping  of  its  layers  about  it  by  its  own  motion, 
and  its  surface  must  consequently  be,  as  telescopic  observa 
tion  finds  it,  broken  into  sharp  hills  and  mountains,  and 
these  mountain  crests  the  volcanic  outlets  and  craters  of 
the  escaping  fires.  The  body  of  the  moon  must  thus  long 
since  have  lost  much  of  its  inner  heat,  and  its  gases  be 
come  condensed  and  fluids  absolved  mainly  into  its  own 
substance.  Water  and  an  atmosphere,  if  any,  must  be  too 
low  for  ordinary  telescopic  observation. 


062  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

Observation  also  determines  the  fact  of  an  atmosphere 
in  the  twilight  of  Mercury  and  Venus,  and  not  only  an 
atmosphere,  but  the  vapor  of  clouds  and  polar  snows  upon 
Mars,  and  a  very  dense  but  little  elevated  atmosphere 
above  the  surface  of  Jupiter ;  and  as  these  with  all  the 
other  planets  rotate  on  their  axes,  so  doubtless  the  same 
laws  for  binding  down  the  internal  heat  beneath  the  over- 
wrapping  strata,  that  is  found  in  the  earth,  prevail  in  all 
the  other  planets ;  while  the  fact  that  no  satellite  seems  to 
have  any  rotation,  but  only  to  turn  its  side  once  to  the 
primary  in  its  revolution  about  it,  as  being  in  its  revolution 
once  above  and  once  beneath  it,  would  lead  also  to  the 
conclusion  that  for  these  no  atmosphere  nor  water  need  be 
expected  to  reveal  themselves  to  our  observation.  The 
moons  of  all  the  other  planets  must  be  older  than  ours, 
and  their  cooling  and  absorption  of  vapors  must  have  left 
an  atmosphere  on  them,  even  less  elevated  than  on  our 
satellite. 

Thus  the  great  physical  facts,  through  all  the  varied 
fields  of  natural  observation  and  experience,  are  found  to 
be  completely  bound  in  laws  that  are  necessarily  deter 
mined  for  them  in  the  eternal  principles  which  condition 
them. 

13.  LAWS  OF  STELLAR  DISTRIBUTION. — On  any  clear 
night,  there  is  observable  a  very  perspicuous  zone  or  belt 
of  a  curdled  and  in  some  places  partially  interrupted  silvery 
white  light,  which  as  a  broad  bow  spans  the  heavens 
through  our  whole  hemisphere,  and  which  is  thus  known 
as  the  galaxy  or  milky-way.  The  same  belt  continued 
spans  the  southern  heavens,  and  is  thus  a  great  circle 
through  the  whole  heavenly  sphere.  It  makes  an  angle  of 


THE   LAWS   OF   STELLAE   DISTRIBUTION.  363 

about  40°  with  the  ecliptic,  and  its  plane  cuts  our  globe  at 
an  inclination  of  about  63°  to  the  equator,  crossing  the 
equator  on  each  side  of  the  globe  at  about  10°  east  of  the 
equinoctial  points.  It  does  not  quite  equally  divide  the 
heavens,  but  makes  the  two  hemispheres  proportioned  as 
8  to  9,  with  the  vernal  solstice  in  the  smaller  area.  This 
galactic  circle  may  be  conceived  as  having  its  poles  at  the 
opposite  extremities  of  an  axis  passing  through  the  centre 
perpendicular  to  its  plane.  The  northern  galactic  pole  will 
then  have  its  position  in  the  constellation  Coma  Berenices, 
and  the  southern  galactic  pole  between  the  tail  of  Cetus 
and  Apparatus  Sculptoris. 

When  this  broad  circle  is  viewed  through  a  large  teles 
cope,  the  peculiar  white  appearance  is  seen  to  extend  itself 
to  some  distance  on  each  side,  making  the  milky-way  6°  or 
7°  broader  in  the  heavens  than  when  observed  by  the 
naked  eye.  Its  narrowest  and  brightest  portion  is  in  the 
southern  hemisphere  near  the  constellation  of  the  Cross  and 
at  the  hind  feet  of  Centaurus,  being  there  about  3°  in 
breadth.  Its  broadest  undivided  portions  are  in  some 
places  15°,  and  where  there  is  the  broadest  separation  in 
the  northern  hemisphere,  the  whole  width  from  outside  to 
outside  of  the  two  paths  is  22°.  There  are  several  breaks 
and  interruptions  and  bifurcating  separations  in  its  course, 
but  the  most  remarkable  division  begins  in  the  southern 
heavens  near  Circinus  and  the  fore  feet  of  Centaurus,  and 
one  branch  runs  up  and  loses  itself  near  the  foot  of  Serpen- 
tarius,  and  the  more  southerly  branch  passes  through  Aqui- 
la,  Sagitta,  Yulpecula,  irregularly  but  uninterruptedly  to 
Cygnus.  The  lost  northern  branch  also  recovers  itself  in 
Aquila,  and  conies  up  to  meet  the  southern  branch  in  Cyg- 


364:  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

nus.  The  bifurcations  in  Circinus  and  Cygnus  are  about 
130°  apart,  and  through  the  main  distance  both  parts  con 
tinue  nearly  parallel,  though  slightly  converging  from  the 
mid-point. 

The  whole  belt  is  very  satisfactorily  determined  to  be 
the  shining  of  thickly  clustered  stars  too  minute  to  be  dis 
tinguishable  by  the  naked  eye,  the  blended  light  of  which 
makes  this  white  circle  across  both  hemispheres.  A  teles 
cope  of  high  magnifying  power  resolves  very  much  of  this 
belt  into  distinct  stars  of  the  smallest  magnitude,  and 
though  very  numerous  yet  may  be  carefully  counted  in  the 
field  of  the  telescope,  while  other  parts,  though  distinct, 
are  yet  so  finely  powdered  that  like  close  grains  of  sand 
they  cannot  be  numbered.  Some  parts  of  the  milky-way 
appear  to  be  filled  with  these  minute  stars,  which  though 
fully  resolved  do  not  leave  any  appreciable  spaces  separat 
ing  them,  and  at  other  places  the  grains  grow  thinner  and 
the  dark  unoccupied  spaces  open  between  them.  There  are 
other  regions  which  to  the  highest  glasses  are  still  unre- 
solvable,  and  though  piercing  to  more  than  2000  times  the 
distance  of  the  nearest  stars,  and  from  whence  it  would 
require  that  the  light  should  be  more  than  12,000  years  on 
its  passage  to  us,  yet  is  the  depth  to  which  stars  beyond 
stars  are  here  placed  wholly  fathomless.  In  some  parts  the 
stars  of  the  first  magnitudes  appear  to  lie  on  a  background 
of  the  smallest  resolvable  stars,  or  on  a  ground  of  unre- 
solvable  brightness  at  a  great  remove  behind,  and  nothing 
within  the  broad -space  between;  and  in  other  parts  the 
successive  magnitudes  seem  to  lie  regularly  stratum  behind 
stratum,  filling  the  whole  depth  to  the  most  fathomless 
distances. 


THE   LAWS    OF   STELLAK   DISTRIBUTION.  365 

From  each  galactic  pole  up  to  the  circle  the  spaces  be 
tween  have  been  carefully  gauged  in  both  hemispheres, 
and  in  various  lines  of  the  galactic  meridians,  that  it  might 
be  determined  how  the  stars  are  distributed  relatively  from 
these  galactic  poles  to  the  middle  of  the  circle.  The  whole 
breadth  of  90°  was  divided  into  zones  of  15°  each,  and  the 
field  of  the  telescope  passed  up  through  them  in  one  suc 
cessive  galactic  latitude  after  another,  designing  to  cover 
at  each  remove  a  circle  of  15'  diameter.  About  2,300 
careful  gauges  were  made  by  Sir  J.  Herschel  in  the  south 
ern  heavens,  and  a  similar  observation  had  been  made  by 
Sir  "W.  Herschel  of  the  northern  heavens,  and  an  extended 
analysis  of  these  observations  by  Prof.  Struve  determined 
the  following  results  of  comparative  stellar  distribution, 
from  the  galactic  poles  upwards  through  these  successive 
zones. 

Northern  Galactic  Pole.  Southern  Galactic  Pole. 

90°  to  75°  =    4.32  90°  to  75°  =  6,05 

75°  to  60°  =    5,42  75°  to  60°  =  6,62 

60°  to  45°=     8,21  60°  to  45°=  9,08 

45°  to  30°  =  13,16  45°  to  30°  =  13,49 

30°  to  15°  =  24,09  30°  to  15°  =  26,29 

15°  to  00°  =  53,43  15°  to  00°  =  59,06 
At  the  galactic  circle,  122,00. 

The  increase  maintains  an  astonishing  degree  of  regu 
larity  and  uniformity  in  each  hemisphere,  the  southern 
being  invariably  a  little  advance  upon  the  northern,  but 
constantly  in  very  fair  proportion  from  zone  to  zone  re 
spectively.  The  galactic  poles  have  few,  and  the  galactic 
circle  has  many,  stars. 

There  are  some  very  striking  and  important  facts  to  be 


366  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

noticed  in  this  augmentation  of  stars  through  the  higher 
galactic  latitudes,  viz.  that  the  larger  stars  up  to  those  of 
the  8th  magnitude  had  no  perceptible  increase  as  the  lat 
itude  was  elevated;  that  the  stars  of  the  9th  and  10th 
magnitudes  regularly  increased  from  about  30°  on  each 
side  of  the  galactic  circle;  that  stars  of  the  llth  mag 
nitude  began  to  increase  soon  after  leaving  the  galactic 
poles;  and  that  from  the  12th  magnitude  and  upwards  the 
increase  was  striking  and  constant  from  the  start.  The 
stars  at  the  galactic  poles  are  thus  in  much  greater  pro 
portion  of  larger  to  smaller  than  at  the  galactic  circle. 
The  larger  keep  their  own  number  all  the  way,  the  smaller 
only  make  the  increase.  It  is  also  a  noticeable  and  im 
portant  fact,  that  the  stellar  clusters  and  nebula?  are  very 
infrequent,  and  almost  none  within  the  galactic  circle, 
but  in  different  directions  these  clusters  and  nebula?  are 
numerous  at  large  distances  from  the  circle.  The  most 
remarkable  field  of  any  in  the  heavens  for  these  clusters 
and  nebula?,  is  in  the  neighborhood  of  and  above  the  north 
galactic  pole,  where  in  about  one-eighth  of  the  heavens  is 
found  one-third  of  all  the  clusters  and  nebula?. 

The  next  in  importance  is  the  region  about  and  above 
the  southern  galactic  pole  in  the  neighborhood  of  Pisces, 
so  that  there  has  been  conjectured  to  be  a  belt  of  clusters 
and  nebula?  at  right  angles  to  the  galactic  circle.  But 
close  and  continued  observation  does  not  confirm  the  con 
tinuance  of  such  belt  of  nebula?  transverse  the  milky-way, 
and  only  determines  their  existence  to  the  fields  above  the 
galactic  polar  regions,  the  most  numerous  and  extensive 
being  found  at  the  northern  galactic  pole.  Indeed  that 
part  of  the  region  between  the  galactic  poles  that  lies 


THE   LAWS   OF   STELLAK   DISTRIBUTION.  367 

about  Aries,  Taurus,  and  the  head  of  Orion,  is  almost 
wholly  barren  of  all  nebula?.  The  catalogues  of  nebula? 
give  much  the  largest  number  to  the  northern  portion  of 
the  heavens,  making  2299  for  the  northern,  and  1239  for 
the  southern  hemisphere.  The  stellar  clusters  reverse  this 
order,  being  152  north  and  230  south. 

The  most  remarkable  patches  of  clustered  nebula?  are 
the  larger  and  smaller  Magellanic  clouds,  or  Nubecula 
major  and  Nubecula  minor,  which  circle  about  the  south 
ern  pole  at  from  26°  to  30°  from  it,  and  about  12°  distant 
from  each  other.  The  first  covers  a  space  in  the  heavens 
of  42  square  degrees,  and  the  latter  10  square  degrees. 
The  base  of  these  nebula?  is  a  wholly  unresolved  field  of 
brightness  on  which  are  projected  stellar  clusters  and 
single  stars  of  varying  magnitudes.  Taking  the  entire 
Nubecula,  there  are  in  the  major  291  nebula?,  46  clusters, 
and  582  single  stars;  and  in  the  minor  there  are  37  neb 
ula?,  7  clusters,  and  200  single  stars.  The  stars  and  clus 
ters  are  doubtless  much  nearer  to  the  point  of  observation, 
and  stand  far  within  the  distance  of  the  unresolved  nebula? 
that  are  in  the  background.  It  may  be  said  generally  of 
the  stars  in  the  southern  hemisphere,  that  though  fewer 
than  in  the  northern,  they  are  resplendent  with  a  very 
appreciably  augmented  brightness. 

Now  this  somewhat  extended  enumeration  of  facts,  in 
reference  to  stellar  distribution,  can  go  but  little  way  as 
data  for  determining,  by  any  deductions  therefrom,  the 
general  structure  of  the  starry  heavens.  "We  look  through 
into  the  dark  open  space,  in  some  places  of  the  surround 
ing  firmament ;  again,  we  have  stellar  clusters  of  less  and 
greater  spacial  area  in  which,  though  we  may  distinguish 


368  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

the  exceedingly  minute  stars  they  contain,  the  resolved 
stars  are  so  thickly  studded  together,  that  the  spaces  be 
tween  are  barely  recognized;  and  then  there  are  other 
considerable  regions  of  fathomless  depth,  through  which 
no  assisting  powerful  instruments  help  the  sight  to  pierce 
and  determine  that  there  is  other  than  a  perpetual  heaping 
of  stars  one  upon  another. 

How  then  the  external  limits  of  the  starry  universe  are 
to  be  drawn,  and  what  internal  parts  may  be  filled  or 
empty,  and  what  the  relative  shapes  and  bearings  from 
each  other  any  divisions  of  the  whole  may  give,  the  ascer 
tained  facts  are  as  yet  far  too  scanty  and  partial  to  deter 
mine  when  left  to  the  teaching  of  the  facts  alone.  A  pretty 
common  opinion  has  apparently  been  admitted,  that  our 
system  is  plunged  deep  in  the  separate  starry  stratum  of 
the  milky-way,  and  that  other  distant  nebulaa  are  strata  as 
distinct  and  probably  as  large  as  our  galactic  stratum,  and 
each  forming  as  perfect  a  circle  of  silvery  light  as  ours,  to 
those  who  inhabit  the  worlds  that  are  as  deeply  imbedded 
within  it  as  we  are  in  ours.  Sir  William  Herschel  early 
expressed  such  a  conjecture,  and  this  has  been  silently  ac 
quiesced  in  rather  than  adopted  from  any  careful  inquiry, 
though  it  is  manifest  that  this  early  conjecture  of  Herschel 
has  lost  all  real  support  from  its  author  by  his  subsequently 
disproving  the  supposed  facts  that  had  given  rise  to  it. 
The  field  of  the  milky -way  has  never  yet  been  other  than 
very  partially  fathomed ;  large  portions  are  wholly  unre 
solved  by  the  most  enlarged  modern  reflectors.  The 
outskirts  of  the  milky-way  may  be  as  remote  from  us  as 
any  unresolved  nebulae,  and  we  cannot  from  any  observed 


THE   LAWS   OF   STELLAK   DISTRIBUTION.  369 

facts  yet  conclude  that  it  is  a  separate  and  independent 
stratum. 

But  when  we  have  attained  the  principle  that  must  de 
termine  the  structure  of  the  stellar  region,  and  necessarily 
fix  its  locality  within  definite  limits  in  the  universal  sphere, 
and  thereby  apprehend  what  must  be  the  aggregate  locali 
ties  of  the  starry  worlds,  we  may  then  bring  all  the  facts 
we  have  immediately  under  the  circumscription  of  such 
determining  principles,  and  therein  find  the  accordance  of 
facts  and  principle  much  sooner,  than  from  any  induction 
of  facts  alone  we  could  hope  for  the  suggestion  of  an  hy 
pothesis  that  would  bear  the  test  of  general  observation 
and  experiment.  The  combination  of  forces,  that  must  re 
sult  from  the  universal  hemispherical  pressure  and  the  cen 
tral  impulse  of  the  perpetual  generation  of  the  conjoined 
antagonist  and  diremptive  forces,  necessarily  excludes 
all  world-formations  within  the  limits  of  two  spheroids 
formed  on  the  semi-diameters  of  the  universal  sphere,  and 
determines  their  construction  in  successive  layers  or  strata 
in  the  circumference  of  such  spheroids,  and  thence  exter 
nally  in  the  diminishing  arcs  of  increasing  circles,  till  the 
compound  forces  find  their  equilibrium  out  near  the  surface 
of  the  universal  sphere. 

We  will,  then,  again  take  the  general  diagram  that 
represents  the  stellar  structure  of  the  universe,  and  the 
few  facts  already  attained  will  enable  us  to  so  locate  our 
solar  system,  and  our  terrestrial  stand-point  in  it,  that  we 
may  make  these  facts  altogether  to  conform  to  the  celestial 
appearances  of  the  most  particular  and  the  most  extended 
astronomical  observations. 

We  have  the  bisection  of  the  universal  sphere  through 


370 


THE   NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 


its  polar  diameter  in  the  circumference  M  F  W  D,  and  the 
two  spheroids  C  H  D  and  GIF  about  the  semi-diameters 
C  D  and  C  F.  The  stellar  region  therefore  occupies  the 
space  exterior  to  the  spheroids  C  H  D  and  GIF,  and  ex 


tends  out  indefinitely  toward  the  circumference  of  the 
universal  sphere  till  it  finds  its  equilibrium  of  hemispherical 
pressure  and  central  impulse,  say,  in  the  general  spherical 
strata  N"  F  and  N  D.  The  equatorial  plane  M  W  will  then 
indicate  the  apparent  place,  in  its  extremities,  of  the  great 
galactic  circle.  Now  this  galactic  circle  has  the  earth's 
equator  inclined  towards  it  about  63°,  and  which  must 
make  the  plane  of  the  earth's  equator,  say,  in  the  line  E  K, 
and  consequently  the  polar  axis  in  a  line  perpendicular 
thereto,  viz.,  B  A,  with  B  its  boreal  and  A  its  austral 
point.  But  the  galactic  circle  divides  the  apparent 
heavens  somewhat  unequally,  in  the  proportion  of  about 
8  in  the  southern  side  to  9  in  the  northern,  and  which 


THE   LAWS   OF   STELLAR   DISTRIBUTION.  371 

must  place  the  stand-point  of  observation  in  our  system  so 
much  to  the  right  hand  of  the  universal  equatorial  plane, 
or  plane  of  the  galactic  circle,  say  at  S.  The  ecliptic  must 
thus  be  about  23°  inclined  from  the  earth's  equator,  and 
about  40°  inclined  toward  the  galactic  circle ;  or,  if  we 
take  the  mean  between  the  earth's  orbit  and  the  plane  of 
the  sun's  equator,  as  the  general  orbital  plane  of  the  whole 
solar  syste.ni,  we  shall  have  about  27°  of  inclination  from 
the  plane  of  the  earth's  equator  and  about  37°  of  inclination 
towards  the  galactic  circle,  making  this  general  orbital 
plane  of  the  solar  system  to  be  in  the  dotted  line  O  R. 
This  orbital  plane  of  the  system  must,  again,  have  been  at 
right  angles  to  the  tangent  of  the  spherical  stratum  out  of 
which  the  solar  system  was  constituted,  and  about  the  line 
of  which  the  central  impulse  must  have  made  it  to  revolve, 
and  which  will  make  that  tangent  to  be  the  dotted  line 
L  Q,  and  the  stratum  to  be  the  arc  of  the  sphere  S  F. 
And  since  this  also  exactly  conforms  to  the  demand  for  a 
diminished  arc  of  an  increasing  sphere,  proportioned  to  the 
distance  from  the  centre  C  relatively  to  the  circumference 
of  the  sphere  C  I  F,  we  have  all  the  perfect  coincidences 
of  fact  and  principle  through  the  whole  operation  that  can 
belong  to  nothing  but  true  science. 

The  point  S  may  be  any  one  in  a  circle  of  points  at  the 
same  distance  from  the  centre  and  also  from  the  galactic 
plane  on  that  side,  and  all  such  points  will  have  the  same 
general  relation  to  the  universal  stellar  structure,  and  from 
each  as  a  stand-point  the  heavens  will  have  the  same  gene 
ral  appearance.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  galactic  plane 
there  must  also  be  another  circle  of  points  in  the  same 
relative  position  to  the  stellar  structure  from  that  hemi- 


372  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS   OF   THE   TJNIVEKSE. 

sphere,  and  from  which  the  heavens  must  have  the  same 
general  appearance,  except  as  the  galactic  circle  must  stand 
in  the  opposite  relation,  and  the  orbital  movement  of  the 
systems  must  be  in  the  opposite  directions.  But  many 
further  facts  perfectly  coincide  with  the  principle  which 
determines  this  position  for  our  solar  system.  Beside  the 
unequal  apparent  division  of  the  heavens  by  the  galactic 
circle,  from  a  point  about  5°  removed  from  its  plane  where 
our  system  stands  on  the  right  hand  side,  there  must  also 
from  this  position  be  the  apparent  bifurcation  and  division 
of  the  milky-way  just  as  our  heavens  present  their  phe 
nomena.  The  waving  lines  diverging  from  the  centre  on 
each  side  of  the  universal  equatorial  plane,  as  given  in  the 
figure,  represent  in  their  opening  the  vacancy  that  must 
occur  in  the  stellar  distribution  quite  around  the  universal 
sphere,  on  account  of  the  gradually  diminishing  forces  in 
operation  as  the  distance  from  the  centre  increases,  and 
such  opening  must  appear  as  the  galactic  separations  are 
seen  to  be  from  our  point  of  observation.  Each  diurnal 
revolution  must  bring  the  observer  under  such  opening, 
and  if  in  the  northern  hemisphere,  then  the  northern  place 
of  bifurcation  must  appear  above  the  horizon,  and  if  the 
observer  be  south,  then  the  southern  place  of  bifurcation 
must  appear,  and  if  on  or  near  the  equator,  then  both  the 
northern  and  southern  places  of  separation  will  be  seen 
with  all  the  space  between  them.  At  some  part  of  every 
diurnal  revolution  must  also  the  observer  lose  sight  of  the 
galactic  separation,  for  he  must  daily  pass  under  that  por 
tion  of  the  galactic  circle  whose  direction  will  be  within 
toward  the  universal  centre  and  where  the  separations 
must  be  too  slight  to  appear. 


or  THE 

THE   LAWS   OF   STELLAR   EISTRIBUTlbH  T         VsS  R  S  I  T  Y" 

The  hemispherical  pressure  and  the  central  o^™fcld3gs^T 
in  composition  must  determine  the  thickest  materis 
generated  and  located  near  the  regions  on  each  side  of  the 
universal  equatorial  plane,  and  thus  each  stratum  will  there 
have  the  stars  the  nearest  together  and  becoming  more 
sparse  backward  toward  the  universal  poles;  yet  such 
frequency  of  stars  in  their  respective  strata  will  not  be  the 
chief  occasion  of  the  white  galactic  light,  but  the  much 
deeper  space  and  thus  the  many  more  stars  that  come  in 
the  galactic  plane  from  our  stand-point  on  the  earth,  and 
the  range  that  the  earth's  position  must  give  to  them  in 
their  general  distribution  to  secure  such  concentration  in 
the  line  of  vision.  If  we  take  a  field  of  vision  from  the 
earth's  position  with  the  distance  S  C  for  a  spherical  radius, 
it  is  manifest  that  the  direction  in  which  the  stars  will  ap 
pear  to  be  constantly  condensing  from  all  sides  will  be  in 
the  plane  of  the  galactic  circle,  and  the  same  will  also  be 
true  if  we  increase  our.  spherical  radius  to  any  telescopic 
distance,  S  A  or  S  B ;  the  position  of  the  earth  is  such  in 
the  great  stellar  structure,  that  the  plane  of  the  galactic 
circle  must  be  that  to  which  the  lines  of  vision  are  on  all 
sides  converging,  that  they  may  pass  through  the  thickest 
portions  or  the  deepest  gauges  of  the  stellar  region.  The 
narrowest  portion  must  be  in  the  direction  S  C,  and  which 
will  bring  the  line  in  the  region  of  Charles'  Oak  near  to  the 
Southern  Cross,  and  the  broadest  portion  must  be  in  the 
direction  S  1ST,  which  will  give  the  middle  of  the  galactic 
separation,  or  the  region  of  Aquila ;  and  to  such  a  result 
the  facts  themselves  conform.  The  brightest  part  of  the 
heavens  will  be  that  in  which  the  proportions  of  number 
and  magnitude  of  the  stars  combine  to  give  the  greatest 


374  THE   NECESSAKY   LAWS   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

light,  and  which  will  not  necessarily  be  in  the  thickest  part 
of  the  milky-way.  Some  of  the  brightest  portions  of  the 
heavens  are  lighted  up  by  stars  of  the  first  magnitude  oc 
curring  near  together  and  also  in  near  neighborhood  to  the 
milky-way,  as  in  the  region  of  the  Southern  Cross,  the  por 
tion  from  Orion  through  Canis  Major  and  Argo,  and  also 
the  Altar  and  the  tail  of  the  Scorpion,  and  in  the  northern 
hemisphere  the  parts  about  the  bifurcation  in  Cygnus,  but 
these  bright  stars  of  the  first  magnitudes  are  doubtless  to 
be  apprehended  as  comparatively  near  to  the  earth,  and 
projected  by  the  line  of  vision  upon  the  circle  of  the  galaxy 
beyond  them,  or  the  spaces  adjoining.  The  least  illumi 
nated  portion  is  that  part  of  the  milky-way  between  Mono- 
ceros  and  Perseus,  and  which  will  stand  opposite  to  the 
galactic  separation,  or  towards  the  interior  of  the  universal 
sphere. 

But  the  most  striking  conformity  of  facts  and  princi 
ple,  given  in  this  position  for  our  system,  is  the  relative 
proportion  of  the  stars  in  numbers  as  the  observation  pro 
ceeds  from  the  galactic  poles  on  each  side  up  to  the  galac 
tic  circle.  We  have  above  seen  that  the  gauges  from  the 
northern  galactic  pole  to  the  circle,  are  invariably  some 
what  less  than  those  from  the  southern  galactic  pole  to  the 
circle,  though  the  ratios  of  increment  are  very  similar  in 
each,  and  the  position  of  the  system  must  make  such  ap 
pearance  necessary.  A  gauge  at  the  distance  of  a  spheri 
cal  radius  S  g  in  the  direction  of  the  northern  galactic 
pole,  up  to  the  galactic  circle,  must  perpetually  pass  into 
an  increased  thickness  of  the  stellar  strata,  and  thus  a  con 
tinually  augmenting  number  of  stars  must  come  within 
the  vision  until  the  milky-way  is  reached  in  the  meridian. 


THE   LAWS    OF   STELLAR   DISTRIBUTION.  375 

And  so  also  with  the  spherical  radius  from  S  p,  in  the 
direction  of  the  southern  galactic  pole,  a  similar  augmen 
tation  of  thickness  in  the  stellar  strata  as  observed  from 
our  position  must  occur,  as  the  gauges  approach  the  milky- 
way  in  the  meridian  from  the  southern  galactic  pole.  But 
inasmuch  as  the  earth's  position  in  its  system  is  a  little  on 
the  northern  side  of  the  galactic  circle,  the  thickness  of 
the  stellar  strata  and  consequently  the  number  of  the  stars 
in  the  vision  must  always  be  proportionally  greater 
through  the  lines  of  the  southern  gauges. 

And  still  further,  this  increase  does  not  occur  in  stars 
larger  than  the  8th  magnitude,  thus  manifesting  that  the 
stars  at  the  distances  of  S  p  and  S  g  must  be  of  the  7th 
and  8th  magnitudes.  Within  the  spheres  formed  by  the 
radii  S  p  and  S  g,  the  stars  must  increase  in  magnitude 
to  the  1st  as  nearest  to  S,  and  as  those  of  the  same  mag 
nitude  will  on  an  average  stand  out  on  all  sides  from  S  in 
the  same  thickness  of  stellar  strata,  so  the  gauges  must 
make  on  all  sides  the  same  numbers  for  the  same  magni 
tudes.  But  it  will  be  observed  in  the  figure  that  an 
increase  of  radius  beyond  S  p  and  S  g  to  reach  the  stars 
of  the  9th  and  10th  magnitudes,  the  gauges  must  meet 
the  arcs  of  the  lower  stellar  strata  C  H  D  and  GIF  quite 
above  the  line  of  the  galactic  axis,  and  within  about  30° 
of  the  galactic  circle,  and  from  thence  the  gauges  can 
make  some  but  only  a  slight  increment  up  to  the  meridian. 
And  then  again,  extending  the  spherical  radius  to  reach 
stars  of  the  llth  magnitude,  the  gauges  must  meet  the 
spherical  arc  still  further  from  the  galactic  circle,  and  their 
ratio  of  increment  must  be  proportionally  conspicuous; 
and  from  thence  to  the  smallest  telescopic  magnitudes  of 


376  THE  NECESSARY   LAWS    OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

the  17th  and  18th,  we  come  to  the  spherical  radius  at  the 
distances  S  G  and  S  P,  where  the  gauges  must  meet  the 
spherical  arcs  on  their  opposite  sides,  and  the  stars  of 
these  smallest  magnitudes  are  found  even  at  the  galactic 
poles,  and  their  increment  is  perpetual  from  the  pole  quite 
up  to  the  galactic  circle. 

It  is  also  in  this  manifest,  how  the  stars  of  larger  mag 
nitude  may  be  found  with  large  vacancies  between  them 
and  those  of  much  smaller  magnitudes.  By  looking 
through  the  telescope  in  the  direction  of  either  galactic 
pole,  the  stars  in  its  field  will  be  visible  from  S  g  and  S  p, 
as  stars  from  the  1st  to  the  8th  magnitude,  but  the  space 
will  then  be  vacant  till  we  reach  the  stars  on  the  further 
portion  of  the  spherical  arcs,  and  of  the  smallest  magni 
tudes  about  the  galactic  poles.  As  the  telescope  shall  be 
elevated  above  the  galactic  poles -toward  the  meridian, 
the  arcs  will  be  struck  at  higher  points  and  the  vacant 
spaces  will  grow  perpetually  smaller,  until  they  vanish 
quite  away  in  the  culminating  point,  and  the  stellar  strata 
will  be  from  thence  in  solid  continuity. 

The  stellar  clusters  and  nebulae  also  quite  conform  to 
the  conditions  demanded  in  this  relative  position  of  the 
solar  system.  If  the  nebulas  are  but  stellar  clusters  unre- 
solvable  by  telescopic  power  because  of  their  greater  dis 
tances,  then  it  must  follow  that  the  unresolved  nebulaB  must 
be  in  those  portions  of  the  stellar  structure  that  admit 
of  great  distance.  The  region  most  fertile  in  stellar  clus 
ters  and  nebula?  is  that  about  and  above  the  north  galactic 
pole,  in  the  constellations  Leo  Major,  Canes  Yenatici,  Coma 
Berenices,  and  the  head  and  wings  of  Virgo ;  and  in  the 
region  about  the  south  galactic  pole  with  a  northern  direc- 


THE   LAWS   OF   STELLAE   DISTRIBUTION.  377 

tion  from  it,  in  the  constellation  Pisces,  there  are  also  fre 
quent  stellar  clusters.  By  large  magnifying  glasses  these 
are  mostly  resolvable,  and  therefore  must  lie  within  dis 
tances  no  greater  than  those  of  the  galactic  poles.  The 
nebulae  in  the  sword  of  Orion  and  another  in  Andromeda's 
girdle,  are  barely  if  at  all  completely  resolvable,  and  they 
lie,  the  former  pretty  nearly  over  the  earth's  position, 
when  the  southern  side  of  the  galactic  circle  is  on  the 
meridian,  and  may  therefore  be  at  the  distance  of  a  spheri 
cal  radius  S  B,  and  the  latter  nearly  in  the  direction  S  O, 
and  may  therefore  be  at  any  distance  admitted  by  the 
whole  thickness  of  the  stellar  strata  in  that  direction. 

The  very  remarkable  nebulae,  or  clusters  of  nebulae,  in 
the  extreme  southern  hemisphere,  called  Magellanie  clouds 
or  Nubecula  major  and  Xubecula  minor,  have  been  above 
described.  The  stars  and  stellar  clusters,  which  appear  in 
the  line  of  vision  projected  upon  the  nebulae  as  their  back 
ground,  must  have  an  intervening  position,  and  the  nebulae 
themselves,  which  are  hitherto  wholly  irresolvable,  must 
be  among  the  objects  furthest  removed  within  that  sphere 
that  the  light  penetrates  to  reach  our  earth.  Their  posi 
tions  are  near  the  south  terrestrial  pole,  the  Nubecula  ma 
jor  nearly  in  its  direction,  and  the  Nubecula  minor  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  pole  from  the  milky-way,  and  an  in 
spection  of  the  diagram  at  once  convinces  that  the  stars 
and  stellar  clusters  have  their  positions  within  the  distance 
S  C,  in  the  direction  of  the  earth's  axis,  and  that  the  nebu 
lae  themselves  are  stellar  clusters  on  the  inner  stratum  of 
the  spherical  arc  below  the  south  pole,  as  here  presented 
beyond  the  distance  S  A. 

These  many  conformities  of  facts  and  principle,  confirm 


378  THE   NECESSAEY   LAWS   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

the  position  of  the  solar  system  and  the  law  for  stellar  dis 
tribution  as  we  have  given  them. 

14.  LAWS  OF  LIFE. — The  most  general  laws  only  need 
here  be  noticed,  for  the  general  principles  of  the  life-force 
nave  not  been  sufficiently  determinative  of  the  facts  to 
make  any  minute  conformities  extensively  observable.  The 
life-force  is  a  spiritual  activity  and  retains  its  simplicity  in 
its  incorporation  with  matter,  and  can,  therefore,  never 
itself  become  phenomenal.  Material  forces  only  appear, 
and  the  life-force  becomes  known  only  as  it  registers  itself 
m  the  material  forces  which  it  assimilates.  Our  insight  of 
it  is  only  in  the  conception  that  it  meets  the  simple  activi 
ties  of  the  material  forces,  and  thus  becomes  itself  a  force 
by  dissolving  and  interpenetrating  other  forces  and  using 
their  component  simple  energies.  When  thus  using  and 
assimilating  the  elemental  activities  of  other  forces,  the 
matter  incorporated  by  it  is  quick  and  organic,  but  when 
the  assimilating  activity  is  withdrawn,  the  material  forces 
run  on  again  their  own  conditioned  changes. 

The  spiritual  activity  in  the  life-force  has  within  its  first 
incorporation  as  a  germ,  the  potential  forms  of  its  full  ma 
turity,  and  each  germ  uses  material  nature  in  its  own  way 
for  building  up  its  own  forms  in  the  matter  it  incorporates. 
This  inherent  formative  power  adapts  itself  to  its  wants, 
and  sends  down  a  tap-root  in  the  vegetable,  or  heals  a 
wound  and  mends  a  broken  bone  in  the  animal,  when  cir 
cumstances  demand  it. 

The  vegetable  life  can  use  for  its  body  the  unorganized 
material  forces,  and  such  rude  matter  as  has  never  come 
into  any  organization  is  here  first  made  the  tabernacle  for 
the  living  spirit.  This  spirit,  as  a  mere  vegeta  solely,  incor- 


THE   LAWS    OF   LtFE.  379 

porates  without  any  sentient  activity,  and  uses  certain  ap 
propriate  unorganized  forces  as  the  elements  which  it 
assimilates  and  takes  into  its  own  organism.  And  yet 
such  matter  as  has  already  been  used  in  vegetation,  the 
old  cast  off  remnant  and  dissolved  portion  of  decayed 
vegetation,  seems  the  most  readily  to  be  made  the  nour 
ishment  of  other  plants.  The  animal  body  is  wholly  fed  by 
that  which  has  once  been  vitalized,  and  must  live  and  grow 
by  incorporating  vegetable  matter,  or  the  bodies  of  other 
animals,  and  never  feeds  on  unorganized  substances. 

The  law  of  sex,  which  the  idea  makes  necessary  to  the 
propagation  of  the  species,  binds  up  the  facts  in  vegetable 
as  well  as  in  animal  generation.  The  fructification  in  plants 
is  through  the  sexual  flowers,  and  these  may  be  found 
sometimes  of  both  sexes  on  the  same  plant — the  flower  and 
fruit  on  different  places  in  the  stock,  or  sometimes  both 
flower  and  fruit  set  in  the  same  calyx, — or  the  flowers  are 
invariably  found,  in  other  varieties,  with  opposite  sexes  on 
different  stocks.  Again,  among  animals,  the  propagation 
is  sometimes  through  an  impregnation  of  an  ovum,  and 
which  by  incubation  produces  the  offspring  in  an  oviparous 
birth,  or  the  pregnancy  takes  place  in  a  teeming  womb  and 
the  embryo  is  produced  in  a  viviparous  generation.  The 
law  of  sex  is  universal  in  all  organized  material  being,  and 
the  great  difference  between  generation  and  growth  is, 
that  the  growing  development  is  an  assimilation  of  matter 
in  the  germ  which  passes  back  and  states  itself  in  the  stock, 
or  is  taken  up  and  incarnated  through  the  circulation; 
while  in  generation  there  is  a  new  organism  begotten,  that 
ultimately  separates  itself  from  the  parent  stock,  and  passes 
on  in  its  own  growth  by  an  independent  development. 


380  THE   NECESSARY   LAWS   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

All  different  varieties  of  the  same  species  may  procreate, 
but  the  general  law  is  that  different  species  shall  not  mingle 
in  procreation.  The  facts  sometimes  give  an  offspring 
from  nearly  allied  distinct  species  in  the  same  family,  but 
such  hybrid  generations  either  never  propagate,  or  only 
through  short  successions  by  a  recurrence  to  one  of  the 
original  species.  Nature  soon  excludes  a  blended  progeny. 

We  finish  this  chapter,  and  thus  conclude  our  whole 
work,  by  a  short  statement  of  the  LAW  OF  PHYSICAL  ENER 
GIES,  which  the  principles  of  the  forces  in  nature  determine, 
and  enable  us  by  a  rational  insight  very  completely  to  ap 
prehend  as  necessarily  inclusive  of  ah1  static  and  dynamic 
agencies. 

The  sources  of  mechanical  power,  of  which  in  experi 
ence  any  one  can  avail  himself,  are  sufficiently  definite  to 
be  exactly  and  comprehensively  classified.  All  mechanism 
may  be  traced  to  one  of  the  following  sources  of  moving 
energy,  viz.,  1.  Weights.  2.  Flowing  currents.  3.  Heat 
and  cold.  4.  Combustibles.  5.  Magnetics.  6.  Electrics. 
7.  Muscular  action. 

By  a  closer  careful  observation  in  experiment,  it  be 
comes  manifest  that  a  number  of  these  are  convertible  with 
others  or  may  be  included  within  others.  The  impulses  of 
flowing  currents,  whether  of  fluids  or  gases,  may  be  com 
bined  in  some  cases  with  weights,  and  all  be  classed  as 
gravity,  or  in  other  cases  with  heat  and  cold,  and  thus  all 
be  classed  as  expansibility.  Running  streams  and  flowing 
tides  and  atmospheric  pressure  come  under  the  former; 
steam,  congelation  and  crystallization  come  within  the  lat 
ter.  From  what  we  have  seen  also  of  the  combination,  in 
congelation  and  crystallization,  of  the  matter  congealed  or 


THE  LAW  OF  PHYSICAL  FOECES.          381 

crystallized  with  the  latent  heat  of  fusion,  or  with  the  heat 
set  free  in  chemical  dissolution,  we  may  exclude  cold  as 
any  positive  agent  and  ascribe  all  expansion  to  heat. 

Again,  the  force  of  combustion  may  also  be  referred  to 
the  one  source  of  heat.  Experiments  prove  that  by  the 
action  of  solar  light  on  the  green  parts  of  plants  there  is  . 
effected  a  deoxydation  of  carbon  and  hydrogen  from  car 
bonic  acid  and  water,  and  that  thus  what  is  combustible  in 
all  vegetation  is  the  product  of  radiated  heat  in  combina 
tion  with  the  material  forces.  This  combination  constitutes 
the  fibrous  or  woody  substance  in  plants  that  is  known  as 
combustible.  The  incorporated  solar  heat  lies  latent  in  the 
substance,  and  the  fire  of  burning  wood,  charcoal,  or  mine 
ral  coal,  is  only  solar  heat  reproduced  in  the  liberation 
given  to  it  by  the  dissolving  combustion. 

We  may  thus  reduce  our  physical  agents  to,  1.  Weight. 
2.  Heat.  3.  Magnetism.  4.  Electricity.  5.  Muscular 
action. 

But,  as  we  have  found  the  comprehensive  antagonist- 
force  to  be  both  gravity,  magnetism,  and  electricity,  and 
therefore  the  whole  to  be  but  one  agent  in  different  rela 
tive  positions,  we  have  then,  in  reality,  only  the  three 
sources  of  physical  energy,  viz.  Gravity,  Heat,  and  Muscu 
lar  Action.  But  muscular  energy  may  now  be  very  safely 
taken  as  having  its  whole  source  in  the  heat-force.  Care 
ful  experiment  has  well  established  the  fact  that  the 
animal  heat,  the  secretion  and  excretion  of  the  fleshy  tis 
sues,  and  the  muscular  energy,  find  their  respective  equiv 
alents  in  the  oxydation  and  assimilation  of  the  food  used. 
There  is  a  portion  of  heat  given  off  in  the  organism  and 
radiating  out  in  the  atmosphere,  a  portion  combined  by 


382  THE   NECESSAKY   LAWS   OF   THE   TJNIVEKSE. 

vital  chemistry  in  the  incarnating  or  flesh-making  process, 
and  another  portion  exhausted  in  muscular  action.  The 
whole  process  of  the  transformation  of  the  constituent 
heat  in  the  food  into  animal  heat,  fleshy  fibre,  and  muscu 
lar  energy,  cannot  as  yet  be  brought  within  experiment ; 
nor  can  the  due  proportions  of  the  heat-force  in  the  food 
be  precisely  determined  for  these  three  results,  in  order 
that  they  may  be  most  perfect  on  the  whole  in  the  animal 
economy ;  but  that  an  increase  in  either  one,  will  find  its 
equivalent  diminution  in  one  or  both  of  the  others,  may 
be  taken  as  sufficiently  established.  When  digestion  and 
assimilation  goes  on  in  a  state  of  general  muscular  rest, 
the  oxydation  of  the  blood  in  the  lungs,  and  the  deter 
mination  of  the  circulation  in  the  arterial  currents,  secures 
a  perpetual  combustion,  and  producing  of  carbonic  acid  as 
the  result  of  the  oxydation,  and  thus  a  portion  of  heat  is 
communicated  to  the  blood  and  imparted  to  the  whole 
organism.  When  strong  muscular  exertion  occurs,  more 
heat  is  necessarily  demanded  and  used  in  the  muscular 
contractions;  and  while  the  arterial  circulation  is  quick 
ened,  the  heat  of  the  animal  system  is  proportionally  ele 
vated  and  worked  off  in  the  muscular  labor,  and  a  propor 
tionally  larger  new  supply  of  food  must  be  procured. 

From  pretty  careful  estimates  it  has  been  concluded 
that  about  =  of  the  heat  liberated  from  the  food  in  oxydation 
may  be  regularly  returned,  by  a  horse  at  labor,  in  weights 
raised  or  resistance  overcome.  It  cannot  be  said  that  all 
the  food  is  at  any  time  completely  oxydated,  but  about 
|  of  what  is  chemically  supplied  in  the  whole  animal  lab 
oratory  must  be  used  in  the  other  agencies  of  the  animal 
economy,  and  if  any  more  than  about  1  be  exhausted  in 


THE   LAW   OF   PHYSICAL   FOKCES.  383 

muscular  action,  the  animal  organism  will  be  injured.  It 
is  doubtless  fair  to  infer  that  where  the  muscular  exertion 
is  too  little  called  regularly  forth,  the  redundancy  of  the 
heat  liberated  and  entering  into  the  assimilated  fleshy 
fibre,  or  into  the  chemical  process  of  dissolving  the  worn- 
out  living  tissues  that  the  excrementitious  portions  may 
be  thrown  off,  must  induce  the  deterioration  of  the  animal 
system  that  always  follows  the  neglect  of  proper  muscular 
exercise.  No  economical  expedients  can  secure  more  than 
a  certain  amount  of  work  done  for  a  certain  amount  of 
food  consumed,  and  no  sanatory  regulations  can  secure 
health,  but  by  the  supply  of  so  much  food,  and  so  much 
of  its  liberated  heat  used  up  in  muscular  activity. 

It  will  thus  follow,  that  the  vital  agency  is  no  source 
of  physical,  mechanical  energy.  It  is  not  the  source  of 
any  new  power,  but  in  its  interaction  and  incorporation 
with  other  forces,  as  antagonist  or  diremptive,  it  uses  such 
forces  and  subserves  its  own  wants  by  them.  The  heat- 
force,  especially  in  the  matter  that  the  vital  activity  inter 
penetrates,  is  made  by  the  vitality  to  work  for  it.  As  a  sen 
tient  life  the  activity  may  excite  the  muscular  irritability, 
but  the  muscle  has  no  mechanical  force  to  be  applied,  ex 
cept  as  it  is  itself  supplied  by  the  dissolved  food  in  the 
heat-force  thence  imparted.  The  formative  energy  inher 
ent  in  the  germ  has  secured  the  fibrous  arrangements  and 
attachments  of  the  muscle,  and  the  sentient  irritation  that 
uses  the  conveyed  heat-force  secures,  by  the  muscular 
contraction,  the  mechanical  effects  determined  in  the  pre 
arranged  attachments  of  such  muscular  pulleys  to  their 
strong  bony  levers.  "We  have  therefore,  in  this  exclusion 
of  the  vital  agency  from  any  direct  mechanical  energy, 


384:  THE   NECESSAEY   LAWS   OF   THE   UNIVERSE. 

only  the  forces  of  Gravity  and  Heat  as  comprising  within 
themselves  all  the  physical  powers  in  nature. 

This  comprehension  of  all  mechanical  force  and  move 
ment  within  the  two  original  and  constitutive  forces  of 
nature,  antagonist  and  diremptive,  is  a  striking  confirma 
tion  that  our  Cosmology  has  been  made  to  rest  on  the 
basis  of  a  true  and  valid  science.  The  principle  of  the 
generation  of  the  material  universe  involved  the  agency 
of  these  two  forces,  and  needed  none  other.  Spiritual 
Activity  finds  occasion  to  go  out  in  its  energy  in  the  orig 
ination  of  both  counteraction  and  diremption,  and  in  the 
combination  of  these,  all  that  is  space-filling  and  time- 
determining  has  its  existence.  And  now,  when  we  come 
to  examine  the  actual  forces  operating  anywhere  within 
the  created  universe,  and  make  an  analysis  of  all  the 
mechanical  powers  we  can  extract  from  nature,  we  find 
them  all  resolvable  into  weight  and  expansion,  or  gravity 
and  heat,  which  are  only  the  pressure  of  antagonist  activ 
ities  and  the  disparting  of  diremptive  activities.  Nature 
needed  nothing  more  for  its  own  existence;  nature  uses 
nothing  more  for  its  onward  development;  nature  yields 
nothing  more  to  human  solicitation  or  extortion. 

And  the  amount  of  this  mechanical  energy  of  both 
kinds  is  wholly  incapable  of  either  augmentation  or  anni 
hilation,  but  by  an  absolute  and  supernatural  agent.  The 
only  way  of  coming  in  and  going  out  is  through  the  great 
central  Spiritual  Activity.  "New  creations  flow  only  from 
that  source;  annihilations  of  old  existences  can  only  go 
up  back  again  into  that  source.  Nature's  gravity  and 
nature's  heat  have  perpetually  the  same  measure  in  the 


THE   LAW   OF   PHYSICAL   FOECES.  385 

aggregate,  and  both  equilibrate   each  other ;   and  these 
intelligence  may  use   according  to  their  necessary  laws, 
but  all  derangement  of  the  necessary  laws  of  nature  would 
itself  subvert  all  intelligence. 
25 


APPENDIX. 

RATIONAL  COSMOLOGY  ACCORDS  WITH  THE  MOSAIC  HISTORY 
OF  CREATION. 

Ix  the  first  two  chapters  of  the  Book  of  Genesis,  is  a  general 
history  of  the  creation,  and  though  very  concise,  yet  is  the  record 
very  methodical  and  comprehensive.  The  first  chapter  and  the 
first  three  verses  of  the  second  give  the  process  in  detail  through 
six  successive  days,  and  the  cessation  or  resting  from  the  creative 
work  on  the  seventh.  The  remainder  of  the  second  chapter  has  a 
more  desultory  account  of  some  promiscuous  items  of  the  work 
together  with  some  of  the  circumstantial  dealings  of  the  Creator 
with  man  in  his  primitive  state.  The  creative  work  in  general,  and 
the  making  of  plants  and  herbs  antecedently  to  any  rain  upon  the 
earth,  together  with  the  formation  of  the  first  man  from  the  dust 
of  the  ground  are  mentioned  in  verses  4-7 ;  the  planting  of  a  garden 
and  putting  the  man  into  it  to  dress  and  keep  it,  and  the  prohibi 
tion  to  eat  of  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil  are  narra 
ted  in  verses  8-17 ;  and  then  the  making  of  woman  from  a  rib  of 
Adam,  and  giving  her  to  him  in  marriage,  are  described  in  the  last 
part  of  the  chapter,  verses  18-25. 

This  inspired  record  is  to  be  understood  as  God's  representa 
tion  of  his  own  work,  and  containing  the  truth  so  far  as  the  history 
goes,  whether  it  be  supposed  to  have  been  originally  composed  by 
Moses  under  inspiration,  or  by  divine  guidance  adopted  by  him 
from  some  earlier  composition,  and  whether,  again,  it  be  assumed 


DIFFICULTIES    IN   THE   MOSAIC    RECORD.  387 

that  Moses  was  possessed  of  the  full  meaning  of  the  communication 
or  not.  This  record  is  not  given  in  scientific  form  nor  with  philo 
sophical  precision  and  method,  but,  as  Dr.  Lewis  has  ably  and 
satisfactorily  shown  in  his  Six  Days  of  Creation,  the  facts  are  pre 
sented  as  they  would  appear  through  the  medium  of  the  senses. 
Principles  and  laws  as  given  in  thought  are  not  noticed,  and  only 
phenomenal  representations  are  made  as  they  would  appear  alike 
to  the  unreflecting  and  the  scientific  scholar.  The  language  is 
designed  to  carry  a  common  meaning  to  all  readers  in  every  age. 

Natural  science,  especially  in  the  fields  of  Astronomy  and 
Geology,  has  attained  conclusions  which  have  seemed  in  some  cases 
to  be  in  conflict  with  this  Bible  record.  Philological  interpreta 
tion  has  been  modified  in  various  ways  to  meet  these  difficulties 
from  science,  and  by  looking  at  the  Scripture  account  as  intended 
to  give  a  picture  of  facts  for  the  sense,  and  interpreting  some  words 
by  usage  in  other  places  of  the  Scriptures  with  a  less  common  mean- 
in01  the  discrepancies  have  been  much  relieved,  and  science  and  the 
Bible  surprisingly  harmonized  and  made  to  be  corroborative  of 
each  other.  A  correct  Bible  philology  and  a  true  natural  philoso 
phy  must  doubtless  give  facts  in  unison,  and  where  their  facts  seem 
in  any  measure  as  yet  to  be  contradictory,  a  more  complete  investi 
gation  will  at  length  secure  a  thorough  communion. 

But  there  are  not  only  the  difficulties  introduced  from  the  dis 
coveries  of  science,  and  which  more  complete  investigations  must 
remove,  there  are  also  some  inherent  difficulties  in  the  Mosaic 
record  itself,  and  which  are  induced  by  apparently  irreconcilable 
incongruities  in  its  own  statements,  and  which  no  induction  of  facts 
from  human  experience  seem  able  to  reach  and  relieve.  The  double 
creation  of  light,  or  the  making  of  light  antecedently  to  the  mak 
ing  of  the  sun,  the  creation  of  plants  and  herbs  before  the  sun  was 
made,  the  mist  that  covered  the  earth  before  there  was  any  rain, 
etc.,  are  of  this  description  and  still  leave  their  perplexities  in  spite 
of  labored  attempts  at  explanation.  And  now,  while  the  principles 
and  laws  attained  in  the  foregoing  cosmological  investigation  will 
be  found  fully  to  harmonize  their  determinations  with  the  phenom 
enal  representations  of  the  Bible  and  the  general  deductions  of 
natural  science,  and  even  more  clearly  to  expound  and  harmonize 
their  separate  facts,  there  will  moreover  be  found  this  incomparable 
advantage  from  the  cosmology,  that  it  will  remove  these  apparent 
incongruities  in  the  statements  of  the  record,  and  show  the  facts 


388  COSMOLOGY   ACCOEDS   WITH   MOSES. 

to  be  as  the  statements  from  the  necessity  of  the  case.  ~We  shall 
need  only  to  follow  the  creative  process  step  by  step  through  the 
successive  days  in  the  Mosaic  record  with  the  cosmological  princi 
ples  attained  constantly  in  mind,  and  the  accordance  of  each,  and 
the  explanation  of  one  by  the  other  will  continually  appear. 

The  philological  question  whether  the  Hebrew  word  for  "  crea 
ted  "  in  the  first  verse  means  creation  in  the  sense  of  origination, 
or  only  a  new  fashioning  of  old  materials  may  be  decided  either 
way  without  prejudice  to  the  main  facts  in  the  history.  If  the  first 
view  be  taken,  then  "  the  beginning  "  is  the  first  origin  of  material 
existence,  and  if  the  second  be  adopted,  then  "  the  beginning  "  is 
subsequent  to  the  origin  of  matter,  and  is  the  commencement  of 
that  work  which  remodeled  our  world  out  of  old  materials,  and 
placed  it  in  sensible  communion  with  other  worlds  around  it.  The 
last  view  may  be  consistent  with  the  creed  of  a  divine  origination 
of  all  matter,  though  it  exclude  the  inspired  communication  of  such 
a  fact  from  the  Mosaic  account.  After  the  first  verse,  both  views 
would  proceed  in  the  same  way.  But  the  cosmological  principles 
attained  enable  us  to  go  back  to  the  very  morning  of  creation  in 
the  origination  of  matter  itself,  and  with  this  light  we  can  hardly 
fail  to  recognize  a  divine  intention  in  the  Mosaic  history  to  give  to 
us  an  account  of  the  very  beginning  of  material  existence.  The  first 
verse  of  the  Bible  may  well  be  applied  to  what  we  recognize  as  the 
cosmological  fact,  that  God  in  his  pure  spiritual  being  put  forth  his 
simple  activity  in  an  antagonist  action  originating  force,  and  there 
by  took  and  filled  and  held  a  position  in  space,  and  this  filling  of  a 
place  with  a  force  that  must  exclude  all  other  forces  from  the  same 
position  was  the  origination  of  substantial  matter,  and  thereby  the 
occupying  of  so  much  space  with  what  was  thus  made  by  him  to 
stand  out  from  him,  or  to  exist  distinct  from  his  being,  though  from 
the  first  and  ever  dependent  on  his  agency.  The  work  of  creation, 
commencing  in  this  first  point  of  counter-agency,  must  pass  on 
through  all  the  process  of  generating  the  universal  sphere,  and  bring 
ing  it  into  a  fluid  state  by  the  permeation  of  the  heat-force  that  just 
held  loose  every  molecule  in  the  primitive  ether,  and  then  sending  the 
continual  stream  of  the  combined  central  forces  in  composition  with 
the  counteracting  hemispherical  pressure,  as  we  have  above  care 
fully  traced,  and  thereby  thickening  this  primitive  ether  to  a  chaotic 
state  of  chemical  forces  that  became  a  resisting  material  pushed 
and  driven  into  myriads  of  separate  wheeling  spheres,  and  those 


THE   MOSAIC    STAND-POINT.  389 

spheres  sending  off  from  them  in  their  revolutions,  each  its  own 
planets  and  their  satellites.  The  perpetuation  of  the  central  coun 
ter-agency  must,  at  length,  necessarily  result  in  this  making  of 
countless  distinct  systems  and  their  orderly  arrangement  in  the 
universal  ethereal  sphere. 

In  all  this  process  the  passing  of  a  time  could  only  be  determin 
ed  by  the  movement  that  in  succession  was  filling  out  this  uni 
versal  sphere,  and  pushing  its  divided  portions  into  wheeling 
spheres,  and  forming  these  spheres  into  separate  systems.  No 
cyclical  measure  can  be  applied  to  estimate  the  duration,  and  give 
a  definite  period  to  the  process.  But  up  to  the  point  when,  in  our 
solar  sphere,  our  planet  Earth  was  thrown  out  by  the  projectile 
tangential  force,  and  sent  in  its  revolution  and  rotation  to  condense 
and  round  itself  into  a  solid  globe,  may  we  apply  the  declaration 
and  include  all  the  work  and  the  time  denoted  in  this  first  verse, 
"  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth."  The 
whole  material  for  the  heavens  and  the  earth  was  here  brought 
into  being,  and  other  systems  together  with  our  solar  system  were 
in  process  of  formation,  and  thus  the  creative  work  had  its  be 
ginning. 

And  here,  because  the  process  in  one  world  would  be  substan 
tially  the  process  in  all  worlds,  and  especially  because  it  was  design 
ed  for  the  intelligent  inhabitants  of  our  planet,  the  inspired  history 
takes  our  earth  as  the  stand-point,  and  describes  the  subsequent 
phenomenal  facts  and  changes  as  if  observed  solely  from  this  ter 
restrial  position.  The  short  general  declaration  in  the  first  verse 
includes  all  that  took  place  till  the  mass  of  our  planet  was  separated 
from  all  else,  and  then  that  becomes  the  point  of  observation  for 
all  that  follows.  The  next  announcement  in  the  second  verse  tells 
what  was  then  its  phenomenal  condition.  Just  as  the  molten  frag 
ment  had  been  thrown  from  the  periphery  of  its  wheeling  sphere, 
itself  shapeless  without  and  as  yet  chemically  uncompounded  within, 
and  flying  off  into  the  abyss  before  light  had  dawned,  no  words  can 
be  more  forcefully  graphic  than  these  which  inspiration  has  given. 
"  The  earth  was  without  form,  and  void,  and  darkness  was  upon 
the  face  of  the  deep."  But  the  forces  which  God  had  sent  off  in  it, 
and  with  it,  were  working  all  through  and  about  it.  The  revolving 
force  threw  the  upper  part  of  the  mass  over  and  forward,  the  last 
adhesions  before  they  parted  and  the  constant  attractions  of  the 
parent  sphere  after  the  parting  held  the  lower  portions  back,  and 


390  COSMOLOGY   ACCORDS   WITH   MOSES. 

this  power,  as  if  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  brooded  over  the  whole  fluid 
matter,  and  brought  the  whole  into  form,  and  condensed  its  matter 
into  chemical  consistency.  The  earth  became  a  globe  of  consistent 
compact  matter,  rotating  on  its  own  axle,  and  revolving  in  its  de 
termined  orbit. 

Thus  finding  the  stable  point  of  observation,  the  history  begins 
an  orderly  and  methodical  process  of  narration.  It  divides  itself 
into  distinct  notices  of  the  successive  events  that  come  out  from 
under  the  creative  hand,  and  puts  these  into  six  successive  days, 
when  all  is  completed  and  the  Creator  ceases  or  rests  from  his  work 
on  the  seventh  day.  These  consecutive  items  follow  each  other 
just  as  the  cosmological  principles  determine  that  they  must,  and 
just  also  as  the  geological  discoveries  affirm  that  they  did,  and  the 
Scripture  record  is  therein  completely  harmonious  with  cosmological 
truth  and  geological  fact. 

First  Day.  LIGHT.  The  earth  was  moving  on  in  darkness,  for 
though  itself  a  fiery  vaporous  mass,  and  thoroughly  permeated  by 
the  heat-force,  still  was  this  as  yet  so  combined  with  the  antagonist- 
forces  that  no  radiations  could  go  out  in  sufficiently  modulated 
vibrations  to  become  luminous.  The  primal  sphere  must  diminish 
itself  in  the  ejection  of  its  planets  and  the  condensing  of  its  own 
matter,  till  it  shall  become  a  central  orb  of  such  dimensions  that 
the  ensphered  ether  about  it  shall  gravitate  towards  it,  and  rest 
upon  it,  with  sufficient  intensity  to  give  the  concentric  molecules 
consistency  together  as  fixed  spherical  layers,  and  then  the  diremp- 
tive  or  heat-force  must  necessarily  work  itself  out  under  this  pressure, 
first  in  the  polar  and  then  in  the  equatorial  directions  from  the 
centre  and,  in  the  consequent  alternating  prolate  and  oblate  move 
ment,  the  vibration  we  have  before  so  thoroughly  examined  must 
begin  and  continue  perpetual.  When  this  ethereal  gravitation  has 
become  sufficiently  intense,  and  the  surface  of  the  central  orb  suf 
ficiently  contracted  to  secure  the  requisite  breadth  and  rapidity  to 
the  vibrations,  then  must  first  the  phenomenal  light  be  given.  This 
was  the  point  in  the  creative  work  when  God  said,  "  Let  light  be. 
and  light  was."  The  period  for  this  must  have  been  long  after  the 
discession  of  the  Earth  as  a  planet,  and  quite  probably  even  Venus 
was  born  in  darkness,  but  ere  Mercury  became  separated  from  this 
central  body  the  luminous  vibrations  had  doubtless  commenced,  and 
the  morning-twilight  of  our  solar  system  dawned  on  its  hitherto 
cheerless  worlds. 


LIGHT  AND  THE  FIRMAMENT.  391 

The  first  appearance  of  light  would  be  faint,  and  grow  brighter 
only  as  the  condensing  central  orb  grew  less,  and  the  pressure  of 
the  ethereal  gravity  upon  its  surface  greater,  nor  for  a  long  time 
could  it  be  other  than  a  pale  effusion  insufficient  to  give  to  an  ob 
server  upon  the  earth  the  defined  outlines  of  the  orb  from  whence  it 
came,  nor  by  reflection  the  outlines  of  the  revolving  planets.  As 
the  earth  turned  on  its  axle,  there  would  at  length  come  the  degree 
of  light  that  should  permit  the  observer  to  determine  the  direction 
from  whence  the  radiations  came,  and  thus  to  distinguish  between 
the  diurnal  and  nocturnal  successions,  and  in  this  "  God  divided  the 
light  from  the  darkness.  And  God  called  the  light  day,  and  the 
darkness  he  called  night."  In  this  terminates  the  first  historic 
epoch  in  the  creative  work,  or  the  first  creative  day.  That  this 
could  not  have  been  a  day  determined  by  the  terrestrial  rotation  to 
and  from  the  luminous  vibrations  is  manifest  in  that  the  creative 
day  must  have  included  countless  numbers  of  the  terrestrial  natural 
day.  The  great  wheeling  sphere  had  been  perpetually  diminishing 
by  its  ejections  and  condensations  from  the  space  included  in  Nep 
tune's  orbit  down  to  the  space  probably  within  Venus'  orbit,  and 
there  the  light  was  made  by  the  ethereal  pressure  upon  it  and  the 
radiating  vibrations  sent  out  from  it,  and  this  light  augmented  as 
the  central  orb  contracted,  and  Mercury  was  ejected,  but  at  the  close 
of  this  epoch,  and  on  until  in  the  fourth  creative  day,  the  sun  did 
not  appear,  nor  was  the  light  sufficient  to  give  reflected  vibrations 
that  the  moon  should  be  visible.  There  were  many  terrestrial  days 
and  nights,  without  sun,  moon  or  stars,  in  the  first  creative  day  of 
the  Mosaic  record. 

Second  Day.  THE  FIRMAMENT.  At  its  first  discession  from 
the  primal  sphere,  the  mass  from  which  the  earth  was  composed 
was  so  intensely  permeated  with  the  heat-force  as  to  be  in  a  gaseous 
rather  than  a  liquid  state.  Its  volume  then  must  have  filled  at 
least  all  the  space  within  the  moon's  orbit,  for  its  equatorial  cir 
cumference  must  have  been  at  that  distance  from  its  centre  when 
the  moon  was  thrown  from  it,  and  its  daily  rotation  must  have  been 
in  time  the  period  of  a  lunar  month.  While,  then,  the  great  central 
orb  was  still  further  condensing  itself  after  the  earth's  discession 
from  it,  and  approaching  that  size  which  should  induce  luminous 
vibrations,  and  yet  contracting  more  and  more,  the  earth  also  was 
in  the  same  way  condensing  and  contracting  its  volume,  and  although 
during  the  first  creative  day  no  changes  of  a  general  appearance 


392  COSMOLOGY   ACCORDS    WITH   MOSES. 

occurred  in  it  only  that  light  dawned  upon  it,  yet  in  this  second 
creative  day  it  had  cooled  and  condensed  so  far  that  an  outer  shell 
had  formed  over  the  consolidated  molten  matter  within,  and  the 
strata  wrapped  over  on  the  outside  in  the  rotations  had  formed  a 
stable  crust,  on  which  aqueous  mist  and  vapor  settled  down  and 
rested.  As  the  coats  of  these  cooling  strata  shut  in  more  and  more 
the  radiations  of  the  inner  fire,  the  mist  and  vapors  became  more 
and  more  condensed  and  ultimately,  in  liquid  form,  the  water  ac 
cumulated  at  some  depth  over  the  even  surface.  The  heavy  mist 
in  the  thin  atmosphere  at  first  kept  itself  in  contact  with  the  earth,  but 
the  cooling  crust  and  the  accumulating  water  at  length  gave  such 
density  and  buoyancy  to  the  atmosphere,  that  the  mist  and  vapors 
were  lifted  from  the  surface,  and  a  separating  space  appeared  be 
tween  their  lower  stratum  and  the  waters  accumulated  beneath. 
This  interposed  space  of  the  cleared  atmosphere  grew  gradually 
broader,  and  ultimately  lifted  the  cloudy  stratum  so  high  that  it 
appeared  as  a  firm  arch  holding  the  mists  above  from  all  com 
munion  with  the  waters  below.  This  is  that  of  which  the  his 
tory  says,  "And  God  made  the  firmament,  and  divided  the  waters 
which  were  under  the  firmament  from  the  waters  which  were 
above  the  firmament,  and  it  was  so.  And  God  called  the  firma 
ment  Heaven. " 

This  ancient  conception  was  just  that  which  the  appearance 
presented.  The  phenomenal  sky  was  a  solid  arch  or  dome  standing 
firm  in  its  place ;  above  it,  the  waters  in  the  clouds  were  treasured, 
and  separated  from  the  waters  lying  liquid  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 
The  heavens  are  thus  spoken  of  as  being  "  spread  out  as  a  tent  to 
dwell  in ; "  and  in  the  clear  radiance  of  the  day  this  firmament,  or 
the  sky,  is  said  by  Job  to  be  "  strong,  and  as  a  molten  looking-glass." 
This  space  beneath  the  firmament  would  grow  broader,  and  thus 
the  heaven  would  grow  higher  as  the  atmosphere  grew  denser,  but 
from  the  first  it  "  divided  the  waters  from  the  waters.  " 

Third  Day.  DIVISION  or  LAND  AND  WATER  AND  CREATION  OF 
PLANTS.  The  superficial  crust  of  the  earth  was  still  thickening,  and 
the  condensing  vapors  were  then  still  augmenting  the  depth 
of  waters  upon  it,  and  they  must  ultimately  have  covered  the 
globe  many  miles  deep.  Inequalities  of  strength  and  thick 
ness  in  the  crust,  and  in  the  action  of  the  superincumbent 
waters,  and  especially  the  contractions  and  condensations  going  on 
beneath  must  have  made  local  elevations  and  depressions  on  the 


THE    LAND    FKOM    THE    WATER,    AND    PLANTS.          393 

earth's  surface,  and  occasional  fractures  must  have  occurred,  and 
the  mingling  of  the  lower  fires  with  the  inflowing  waters  must 
have  taken  place,  and  many  dislocations  of  the  primitive  strata  must 
thus  have  been  made,  the  most  violent  and  extensive  of  which  had 
upturned,  and  heaved  out  large  fragments  of  the  solid  crust,  and 
in  this  way  hills  must  have  risen  and  valleys  sunk  in  the  former 
level  bed  of  the  waters.  The  tops  of  continents  like  emerging  isl-_ 
ands  then  arose,  and  the  dry  land  began  to  appear.  This  process 
went  on  until  considerable  portions  had  been  elevated,  and  the 
waters  had  retired  into  the  local  depressions,  and  this  work  being 
accomplished,  "  God  called  the  dry  land  earth,  and  the  gathering 
together  of  the  waters  called  he  seas.  "  The  first  uncovered  por 
tions  must  have  been  of  limited  area  and  of  slight  elevation,  and 
the  constant  abruptions  of  the  earth's  crust  must  have  made  fre 
quent  alternations  of  uprisings  and  submersions. 

Up  to  this  point,  the  cosmological  principles  exhibit  nothing  but 
the  play  and  product  of  physical  forces,  which  in  their  combination 
constitute  the  material  universe.  The  chaotic  elements  have  come 
into  chemical  composition ;  metals,  crystals,  subcry stall ine  rocks, 
earth,  water,  air,  and  varied  gases  have  been  formed ;  but  all  is  as 
yet  inorganic,  and  the  earth  and  waters  azoic.  The  preparation  is 
made,  and  the  occasion  given  for  the  manifestation  of  organic  exist 
ence,  and  here  on  the  latter  part  of  the  third  creative  day  we  have 
in  the  record  "  And  God  said,  let  the  earth  bring  forth  grass, 
the  herb  yielding  seed,  and  the  fruit-tree  yielding  fruit  after  his 
kind,  whose  seed  is  in  itself  upon  the  earth,  and  it  was  so."  The 
vegetable  kingdom  was  thus  introduced,  and  though  at  first  marine 
plants  and  the  succulent  vegetation  of  marshes  appeared,  the  work 
went  on  as  the  changing  face  of  the  earth  prepared  the  way,  and  more 
mature  species  of  shrubs  and  trees  were  made.  The  Mosaic  history 
gives  the  introduction  of  the  vegetable  kingdom  in  its  day,  but  new 
species  were  newly  brought  into  existence  all  along  down  through 
the  progress  of  the  subsequent  creative  epochs.  Geology  finds 
fossil  animals  in  the  same  strata  with  its  earliest  fossil  vegetation, 
but  the  consideration  that  all  animal  life  demands  organic  food,  and 
that  the  plant  was  necessary  as  the  absorbent  of  carbonic  acid  and 
the  fixing  of  many  gases  in  its  growth,  to  clear  the  atmosphere  for 
animal  life,  the  evidence  is  sufficient  that  the  plant  must  have 
preceded  the  introduction  of  animal  existence.  The  earliest  and 
frailest  vegetable  organisms  may  have  failed  to  secure  their  fossil 


394  COSMOLOGY   ACCORDS   WITH    MOSES. 

preservation,  and  only  the  more  complete  forms  of  a  later  creation 
have  reached  our  age. 

Fourth  Day.  HEAVENLY  LTJMINABIES.  The  earliest  plants 
grew  in  the  primitive  mist  and  vapor,  after  the  atmosphere  had  be 
come  sufficiently  buoyant  ordinarily  to  separate  the  vapors  from  the 
waters  by  the  phenomenal  firmament,  but  before  it  was  sufficiently 
buoyant  to  sustain  the  dense  rain-cloud ;  chap.  ii.  v.  5,  G.  And  also 
was  their  growth  precedent  to  the  direct  warmth  and  light  of  the 
visible  sun.  The  earth  was  too  little  cooled  to  permit  other  than  a 
torrid  climate  upon  all  its  surface,  and  the  vibrations  induced  by  the 
gravitating  ether  upon  the  central  orb  were  sufficiently  luminous  for 
vegetable  growth,  before  they  became  sufficiently  intense  to  give  to 
the  sun  a  luminous  envelope  and  make  its  face  visible  on  the  earth. 
But  such  luminous  atmosphere  about  the  sun  must  precede  the  in 
troduction  of  animal  life. 

The  comparatively  recent  ejection  of  Mercury,  and  the  consequent 
condensation  and  contraction  of  the  sun's  volume,  probably  thereby 
the  more  suddenly  occurring,  brought  its  mass  and  the  pressure  of 
the  gravitating  ether  upon  it  in  such  conformity,  that  an  augment 
ation  and  accumulation  of  luminous  vibrations  upon  its  surface  was 
effected,  and  henceforth  light  vibrated  in  radiations  immediately  from 
it,  and  not  as  before  from  the  mere  tension  of  the  spherical  layers 
occasioned  by  the  gravitating  ether  towards  it.  The  radiations  thus 
bring  the  form  of  the  sun  with  them,  and  represent  it  upon  the  or 
gan  of  vision,  "  and  the  greater  light  that  rules  the  day  "  was  herein 
phenomenally  made.  This  light  reflected  from  the  hitherto  dark 
face  of  the  moon  caused  it  to  appear,  and  "the  lesser  light  that 
rules  the  night "  was  also  phenomenally  made.  The  planets  that 
had  with  the  earth  been  successively  thrown  off  in  the  same  system 
would  shine  by  reflection,  and  the  great  orbs  that  were  projecting 
their  planets,  and  condensing  their  central  matter  into  suns,  in 
equal  series  with  the  process  in  our  solar  system,  would  emit  their 
light  as  their  direct  vibrations  should  meet  our  earth,  and  thus 
phenomenally  "  he  made  the  stars  also."  All  would  transpire  with 
in  the  same  great  epoch,  and  these  luminaries  would  be  for  signs, 
and  for  determining  cycles  of  time,  and  thus  on  the  fourth  day  the 
lights  in  the  firmament  of  heaven  were  made. 

Fifth  Day.  Fisn,  FOWL,  AND  REPTILE.  At  this  era  the  waters 
still  abounded,  and  the  tops  of  the  continents  only  appeared,  though 
the  records  of  geology  make  it  manifest  that  during  the  long  time 


FISH,    FOWL   AND   REPTILE.  395 

of  its  passing  the  waters  had  greatly  receded,  and  the  portions  of 
dry  land  had  become  very  much  elevated  and  augmented.  The 
third  and  fifth  days'  creative  work  must  have  been  pretty  closely 
consecutive,  for  the  interposing  fourth  day's  work  was  in  reference 
to  the  lights  of  heaven,  that  had  been  in  fact  progressing  and  ma 
turing  from  the  first,  and  was  phenomenally  brought  out  between 
the  third  and  fifth,  but  not  necessarily  separating  the  onward  series 
of  events  from  one  day  to  the  other.  The  order  was,  the  creation 
of  plants  in  the  latest  and  strongest  light  that  preceded  the  gather 
ing  of  a  luminous  atmosphere  about  the  sun,  and  that  of  fish  and 
fowl  with  the  earliest  shining  of  this  luminous  solar  envelope.  The 
earliest  fossils  may  thus  well  be  of  both  plants  and  fish  in  the  same 
rocky  stratum. 

Cosmical  principles  would  also  determine  that  the  plant  should 
not  long  precede  the  animal,  inasmuch  as  the  plant  is  for  the  animal 
and  an  immediate  preparation  for  his  introduction.  And  these 
principles  also  determine  the  order  of  the  animal  creation  to  be  the 
marine  and  amphibian  before  the  more  mature  mammalian  family. 
Cosmological  and  geological  teaching  both  conform  to  the  Mosaic 
history.  Nothing  but  a  divine  source  could  have  secured  to  this 
early  and  unscientific  record  such  a  surprising  harmony  in  so  rec 
ondite  a  matter.  The  great  heat  of  the  earth  was  from  within  ; 
the  incipient  forming  of  the  sun's  luminous  atmosphere  gave  little 
warmth  to  the  earth's  surface.  No  thermal  distinction  of  zones 
appear,  and  the  fossils  that  would  belong  to  torrid  seas  and  islands 
are  found  within  the  Arctic  circle.  The  species  conformed  to  the 
temperature,  and  as  the  cooling  process  went  on,  whole  species  passed 
away  and  others  succeeded ;  and  of  thousands  that  had  their  day 
in  this  fifth  creative  epoch,  and  have  left  their  remnants  in  the 
rocks,  none  now  exist  among  our  present  species.  The  molluscs, 
corals  and  fishes  were  followed  by  the  amphibian  races,  and  these 
by  the  reptiles  and  fowls.  Sea  and  land  often  alternated  over  the 
same  latitudes ;  successive  extinctions  of  whole  genera  were  made, 
and  the  long  fifth  day  seems  to  have  terminated  in  a  catastrophe 
that  abolished  almost  entirely  its  latest  species. 

The  fruitful  teeming  of  the  waters  with  life,  as  geological  fossils 
testify,  is  fully  indicated  in  the  Bible  record.  "  And  God  said,  Let 
the  waters  bring  forth  abundantly  the  moving  creature  that  hath 
life,  and  fowl  that  may  fly  above  the  earth  in  the  open  firmament 
of  heaven."  The  "  great  whales,"  of  which  our  translation  speaks. 


396  COSMOLOGY    ACCORDS    WITH   MOSES. 

were  the  great  Saurian  monsters  of  this  era,  and  of  the  race  of  rep 
tiles  rather  than  fishes. 

Sixth  Day.  MAMMALS  AND  MAN.  The  broad  continents  were 
elevated  and  settled ;  the  seas  had  attained  to  much  their  present 
boundaries  ;  and  then  came  the  work  of  the  sixth  and  last  creative 
day.  The  more  complete  and  perfect  type  of  the  animal  organiza 
tion  had  now  occasion  for  its  development.  "  And  G  od  said,  Let 
the  earth  bring  forth  the  living  creature  after  his  kind,  cattle  and 
creeping  thing  and  beast  of  the  earth  after  his  kind,  and  it  was  so." 
The  early  portion  of  this  sixth  day  was  thus  devoted  to  the  making 
of  the  animals  that  bring  forth  a  living  offspring  and  nurse  their 
own  young.  The  expressions  "creeping  thing"  and  "  every  thing 
that  creepeth  upon  the  earth  "  refer  not  to  the  race  of  reptiles  of 
the  previous  day's  creation,  but  to  the  smaller  mammalia,  like  the 
sloth  and  the  mouse.  The  fossil  records  reveal  that  the  Herbivor 
ous  preceded  and  the  Carnivorous  followed  in  the  order  of  their 
production.  In  the  palmy  days  of  the  brute  race  great  numbers, 
and  species  of  great  magnitude,  abounded.  The  Mammoth,  and 
still  more  huge  Mastodon  and  monster  Magatherium,  with  ferocious 
lions,  tigers,  and  hyenas,  that  exceeded  any  modern  species,  have 
left  their  fossil  remains  to  testify  how  exuberant  and  robust  was 
brute  life  in  its  most  flourishing  period.  Cosmological  principles 
and  the  facts  found  by  science  both  determine  this  more  perfect 
family  of  mammals,  in  the  order  of  vertebrate  animals,  to  this 
latest  period  of  creation ;  and  that  the  Mosaic  record  so  exactly 
accords,  coming  down  to  us  as  it  does  from  a  period  earlier  than  all 
philosophical  teaching,  is  an  abundant  evidence  that  its  testimony 
has  the  stamp  and  seal  of  one  who  was  present  when  the  things 
were  done. 

The  closing  of  the  Day  that  had  introduced  the  most  perfect 
forms  of  animal  life  ushered  in  the  crowning  product  of  creative 
power  by  the  making  of  Man.  In  him  came  out,  as  a  living  or 
ganism,  that  which  had  all  along  been  the  archetype  of  every  earlier 
animal  form.  A  rational  spirit  was  superinduced,  and  in  the  image 
of  his  Maker  he  had  dominion  over  every  living  thing.  The  world 
found  its  end  in  him.  In  his  production  the  last  creative  day 
closed,  for  the  Creator's  work  was  done. 

Seventh  Day.  A  SABBATH.  All  creative  work  ceased  on  the 
sixth  day  in  the  making  of  man.  Nature  henceforth  goes  on  in 
the  regular  order  of  developed  cause  and  effect,  but  no  originations 


SEVENTH   DAY.       A    SABBATH.  397 

of  new  things  take  place,  either  of  inorganic  matter  or  of  organic 
life.  The  worlds  have  reached  their  point  of  equilibration,  and  no 
occasions  for  new  species  of  beings  again  occur.  God,  as  Creator, 
ceases  and  rests  from  his  work,  and  the  world's  Sabbath  begins 
and  lasts  till  the  final  conflagration.  It  has  a  hallowed  relation  to 
man's  history  ;  his  probation,  and  coming  retribution.  God's 
dealings,  all  through  the  world's  sabbatical  epoch,  apply  directly  to 
humanity ;  taking  judicial  recognition  of  his  fall ;  introducing  a 
promised  way  of  redemption  ;  applying  a  preparatory  discipline  of 
ritual  education  ;  bringing  in  the  Gospel  dispensation  ;  and  leading 
on  the  Church  to  the  completion  of  Missionary  effort  in  the  Millen 
nial  reign  of  righteousness.  The  era  of  the  world's  Sabbath  will 
be  followed,  immediately,  by  the  opening  of  the  endless  day  of  rest 
in  the  Gospel  Heaven. 


FINIS. 


A  LIST 

NEW    WORKS 

IN     GENERAL     LITERATURE, 

PUBLISHED  BY 

D.  APPLETON    &   COMPANY, 
846  &  848  Broadwaj. 
>#*  Complete  Catalogues,  containing  full  descriptions,  to  be  had  on  appUoaaio*  * 
the  Publishers. 

Agriculture  and  Rural  Affairs. 

Bonssingault's  Rural  Economy,         .        .        .     1  25 
The  Poultry  Book,  illustrated.          .         .         .     5  00 
Waring's  Element*  of  Agriculture,          .        .        75 

Arts,  Manufactures,  and  Architec 
ture. 

Appleton's  Dictionary  of  Mechanics.  2  vols.    .  12  00 
"          Mechanics'  Magazine.  3  vols.  each,    3  50 
Allen's  Philosophy  of  Mechanics,     .        .        .    3  50 
Arnot's  Gothic  Architecture  4  00 
Bassnett's  Theorv  of  Storms,    .         .        .        .     1  00 
Bourne  on  the  Steam  Engine,  ....        75 

Appletons'  Complete  U.  S.  Guide,  .        .        '     »  M 

American  Practical  Cook  Book,        .        >        . 
A  Treatise  on  Artificial  Fish-Breeding,    .        .        TS 
Chemistry  of  Common  Life.  2  vols.  limo. 
Cooley's  Book  of  Useful  Knowledge         .        .    1  15 
Cust's  Invalid's  Own  Book,      .        .                         fO 
De.Vser's  Intereet  Tables,          .        .        ;        •    4  OC 
The  English  Cyclopaedia,  per  vol.   .        .        .    2  50 
MiVs  on  the  Horse's  Foot,        ....        25 
Tnu  N  ursery  Basket.  A  Book  for  Young  if  othtrs,     38 
Pell's  Guide  for  the  Young,                                       33 
Reid's  New  English  I  .ctionary,       .        .        -     1  60 
Stewart's  Stable  Eccct  my,       .        .        .        .    1  00 
Spnlding's  HUt.  of  English  literature,    .        .     1  00 
Soyer's  Modern  Cookery,         .        .        ,        .     1  00 
The  Successful  Merchant,         .        .        .        .     1  00 
Thomson  on  Food  of  Animals,  ....        50 

Commerce  and  Mercantile  Affairs. 

Anderson's  Mercantile  Correspondence,  .        .    1  50 
Delisser's  Interest  Table?,        .        .        .        .    4  00 
Merchants'  Reference  Book.    .        .        .        .    4  00 
Gates'  (Geo.)  Interest  Tables  at  6  Per  Cent, 
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"           "7  Per  Cent.  Interest  Tables,    .    2  00 
"            "        Abridged,          .        .        .        .    1  25 

Chauman  on  the  American  Rifle,      .        ,        .    1  25 
Co.nmg's  Preservation  of  Health,    ...        75 
Cullum  on  Military  Bridges,      .        .        .         .     2  00 
Downing'*  Country  Houses,      .         .         .        .     4  00 
Field's  City  Architecture,          ...              2  00 

Griffith's  Marine  Architecture,           .        .        .  10  CO 
Gillespie's  Treatise  on  Surveying,   . 
Haupt's  Theorv  of  Bridge  Construction,  .        .     3  00 
Henck's  Field-Book  for  R.  Road  Engineers,    .        75 
Hoblvn's  Dictionary  of  Scientific  Terms,          .        50 
Huff's  Manual  of  Electro-Phvsiology,       .        .        25 
Jeffers'  Practice  of  Naval  Gunnery,          .        .     2  50 
Knapen's  Mechanics'  Assistant,        ...        00 
Lafever's  Modern  Architecture,        .        .         .         '0 
Lyell's  Manual  of  Geology,      ....        75 
"      Principles  of  Geology,  .        .        .        .     2  25 
Reynold's  Treatise  on  Handrailing,          .        .    2  00 
Templeton's  Mechanic's  Companion,        .        .    1  00 
Urn's  Dict'ry  of  Arts,  M  aufactures,<k  :.  2  vols.  5  00 
Voumans'  Class-Book  of  Jtemistry.         .        .        75 
Atlas  of  Che_iistry.  doth,      .        .    2  00 
•«         Alcoh:!,    ....                .50 

Biography. 

Arnold's  Life  and  Correspondence,   .        .        ,    2  00 
Capt.  Canot,  or  Twenty  Yeara  of  a  Slaver,      .    1  25 
Cousin's  De  Longueville,  1  00 

Smith's  Mercantile  Law           .        .        .        .    4  00 

Geography  and  Atlases. 

Appleton's  Modern  Atlas.   34  Maps,        .        .    3  5t) 
"          Complete  Atlas.    61  Maps,     .        .    9  00 
Atlas  of  the  Middle  Ages.    By  Kceppen,         .    4  50 
Black's  General  Atlas.    71  Maps,     .        .        .12;* 
Cornell's  Primary  Geography,          ...        50 
"        Intermediate  Geographv,  .        .        . 
«        High  School  Geography,  . 

History. 

Evelyn's  Life  of  Godolphin,                                          50 
Garland's  Life  of  Randolph,      ,        .        .        .     1  50 
Gilfillan's  Gallery  of  Portraits.  2d  Series,         .     1  OC 
Kernan  Cortez's  Life,          .                         .                 33 
Hull's  Civil  and  Military  Life,  .        .        .        .    2  00 
Life  and  Adventures  of  Daniel  Boone,      .        .        38 
Life  of  Ht  nry  Hudson,      38 
Life  of  Capt.  John  Smith,          .                                 38 
M  oore's  life  of  George  Castriot,       .        .        .100 
Napoleon  s  Memoirs.  By  Ducheaa  D'Abrantes,    400 
Napoleon    By  Laurent  L'Ardeche,  .        .        .    3  00 
PiAnev»W.)  Life.  By  his  Nephew.       .        .200 
Partv  Lejiders  :  Lives  of  Jefferson,  Ac.  .         .     1  CO 
Bouthey'i  Life  of  Oliver  Cromwell,          .        .        38 
Wynna's  Lives  of  Eminent  Men,      .        .        .    1  00 
Webrter  s  Life  and  Memorials.  2  volt.    .        .    1  00 

Books  of  General  Utility. 

Ait»l«tcci'  Southern  and  Western  Guide,       .    1  00 
"          Northern  and  Eastern  Guide,         .    1  25 

"      Later  Commonwealth,        .        .        .    2  50 
«      lectures  on  Modern  History,      .        .     1  25 
Dew's  Ancient  and  Modem  History,        .         .     2  00 
Koeppen's  History  of  the  Middle  Ages.  2  vols.     2  50 
»         The  same,  folio,  with  Maps,    .        .    4  50 
Kohlrausch's  History  of  Germanv,  .        .        .     1  50 
Mahon's  (Lord)  History  of  England,  2  vo!i.    .    4  00 
Michelet's  History  of  France,  2  vols.        .        .     3  50 
'«          History  of  the  Roman  Republic,     .     1  00 
Rowan's  History  of  the  French  Revolution,    .        65 
Sprague's  History  of  the  Florida  War,    .        .    2  50 
Taylor's  Manual  of  Ancient  History,        .        .     1  2ft 
Manual  of  Modern  History,        .         .     1  50 
"        Manual  of  History.   1  vol.  complete,     2  50 
Thiers'  French  Revolution.  4  vols.  Illustrated,    5  M 

Illustrated  Works  for  Present!. 

B-rant's  Poems.    16  Illustrations.  Svo.  cloth,  .    3  50 
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Gray's  Elegv.  Illustrated.  8vo.       .        .        .    1  50 

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in  the  Days  of  Washington.  21  Portraits. 

Antique  mor  .......  12  00 

The  Vernon  Gallery.  67  Engrav'gs.  4to.  Ant.  25  00 
The  W^men  of  the  Bible.  With  18  Engrav 

ings.  Mor.  antique,    .....  10  00 
Wflkie  Gallery.   Containing  60  Splendid  En 

gravings.  4to.  Antique  mor.     .        .        .  25  06 
A  Winter  Wreath  of  Summer  Flowers.     By 

S.  G.  Goodrich.  Illustrated.   Cloth,  gilt,  .    3  !SO 

Juvenile  Books. 

A  Poetry  Book  for  Children  .....  75 
Aunt  Fanny's  Christmas  Stories-  ...  60 
American  Historical  Tales,  ...  75 

UNCLE  AMEREL'S  STORY  BOOKS. 

The  Little  Gift  Book.   18mo.  cloth,        .  25 

The  Child's  Story  Dock.    Illust.    18mo.  cloth,  25 

Summer  Holidays.     18mo.  cloth,     ...  25 

Winter  Holidays.    Illustrated.   18mo.  cloth,  .  25 
George'i  Adventures  in  the  Country.  Illustra 

ted.   Kmo.  cloth.       .....  25 

Christmas  Stories.    Ulustrated.  18mo.  cloth,  .  25 

Book  of  Trades.  .....  50 

Boys  at  Home  .  By  the  Author  of  Edgar  Clifton,  75 

Child's  Cheerful  Companion,    ....  50 

Child's  Picture  and  Verse  Book.  100  Engs.      .  50 


COUSIN  ALICE'S  WORKS. 

All's  Not  Gold  that  Glitters     . 
Contentment  Better  than  Wealth, 
Nothing  Venture,  Nolh-nj  Have, 
No  such  Wort  as  Fail,    . 
Patient  Waitiij  No  Loss, 

Dash  wood  Priory.     By  the  Author  of  Edgar 

Clifton, 

Edgar  Clifton ;  or  Right  and  Wrong, 
Fireside  Fairies.   By  Susan  Pindar, 
Gc.4  in  Every  Thing.  By  Mrs.  Barwell 
Leisure  Moments  Improved, 
Life  of  Punchinello,  .... 


LIBRARY  FOR  MY  YOUNG  COUNTRYMEN. 

Adr  entur*s  of  Capt.  John  Smith.  By  the  Au 

thor  of  Uncle  Philip,  ....  38 

Adventures  of  Daniel  Boone.  By  do.  .  .  38 

Dawning*  of  Genius.  By  Anne  Pratt,  .  .  3S 
Life  and  Adventures  of  "Henry  Hudson.  By 

the  Author  of  Uncle  Philip,  38 

Life  and  Adventures  of  Heman  Cortez.  By  do.  38 
Philip  Randolph.  A  Tale  of  Virginia.  By 

Mary  Gertrude,  .....  38 
Rowan's  History  of  the  French  Revolution.  2 

Tols.    ........  75 

&suth«y'«  Life  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  .  .  38 


Louis'  School-Days.  By  E.  J.  May, . 
Louise  ;  or.  The  Beauty  of  Integrity, 
Maryatt's  Settlers  in  Canada,  .  ' 

Masterman  Ready,   . 
"         Scenes  in  Africa,       . 
Midsummer  Fays.  By  Susan  Pindar, 

MISS  MCINTOSH'S  WORKS. 

A«nt  Kitty's  Tales,  12mo. 

Blind  Alice  ;  A  Tale  for  Good  Children.  ! 

Ellen  Leslie  ;  or,  The  Reward  of  Self-ControL 

Florence  Arnott;  or,  Is  She  Generous} 

Grace  and  Clara  ;  or,  Be  Just  as  well  as  Gen 
erous,  

Jessie  Graham ;  or,  Friends  Dear,  but  Truth. 
Dearer,  .  .  .  .  . 

Emily  Herbert ;  or,  The  Happy  Home,   . 

Rose  and  Lillie  Starhope,         .        .        . 

Mamma's  Story  Boc'*, 

Pebbles  from  the  Sea-Shore,    .... 

Puss  in  Boots.  Illustrated.  By  Otto  Specter,  . 

PETER  PARLEY'S  WORKS. 

Faggots  for  the  Fireside,  . 
Parley's  Present  for  all  Seasons,      . 
Wanderers  by  Sea  and  Land,   .... 
Whiter  Wreath  of  Summer  Flowers, 


)  13 

1  00 
1  13 
3  00 


TALES  FOR  THE  PEOPLE  AND  THEIR 


CHILDREN. 

Alice  Franklin.   By  Mary  Howitt,  . 
Crofton  Boys  (The).    By  Harriet  Martineau,  . 
Dangers  of  Dining  Out.   By  Mrs.  Ellis,  . 
Domestic  Tales.    By  Hannah  More.  2  vols.  . 
Early  Friendship.    By  Mrs.  Copley, 
Farmer's  Daughter  (The).    By  Mrs.  Cameron, 
First  Impressions.    By  Mrs.  Ellis,    .        . 
Hope  On.  Hope  Ever !   By  Mary  Howitt,       . 
Little  Com,  Much  Care.    By  do.       .        .        . 
Looking-Glass  for  the  Mind.    Many  plates,    . 
Love  and  Money.    By  Mary  Howitt,      . 
Minister's  Family.    By  Mrs.  Ellis, 
My  Own  Story.    By  IVIary  Howitt,  . 
My  Uncle,  the  Clockmaker.   By  Jo.        .        . 
No  Sense  Like  Common  Sense.   By  do. 
Peasant  and  the  Prince.    By  H.  Martineau,  . 
Poplar  Grove.    By  Mrs.  Copley,     .        .        . 
Somerville  Hall.    By  Mrs.  Ellis,      . 
Sowing  and  Reaping.   By  Mary  Howitt, 

Story  of  a  Genius 

Strive  and  Thrive.   By  do 

The  Two  Apprentices.    By  do.         ... 
Tired  of  Housekeeping.    By  T.  S.  Arthur,     . 


88  I 

38  ( 


Twin  Sisters  (The).    Bv  Mrs.  Sandham, 
Which  is  the  Wiser!  By  Mary  T 
Who  Shall  be  Greatest?  By  do. 


By  Mary  Howitt, 
it!  Bj    ' 
Work  and  Wages.   By  do. 


SECOND 


Chances  and  Changes.    By  Charles  Burdett,  .  38 

Goldmaker's  Village.   By  H.  Zschokke,          ,  38 

Never  Too  Late.    By  Charles  Burdett,  .        .  38 
Ocean  Work,  Ancient  and  M  -dern.  By  J.  H. 

Wright,'     .       .  .       .       .       •  38 


Picture  Pleasure  Book,  1st  S«  ';ii,  .        . 

"  "         "       2d  Senes,  . 

Robinson  Crusoe.    300  Plates,  .... 
Susan  Pindar's  Story  Book,       .... 

Sunshine  of  Greystone, 

Travels  of  Bob  the  Squirrel,     .... 

Wonderful  Story  Book 

Willy's  First  Present, 

Week's  Delight ;  or,  Game  I  and  Storiei  for  the 

Parlor, 

William  Tell,  the  Hero  of  Switzerland, . 
Young  Student.    By  Madame  Guiiot,      . 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
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WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  Afrg^-™*  ftBWNTH  DAY 
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